Answer:
If you want to earn reverence and have people believe you, being an effective listener is a terrific start. Active listening is a mixture of body language and expressions to corroborate with the speaker.
An audience member may echo what they hear. This is the lowest possible level of active listening and is normally not very active.
A listener may interpret using many words and similar sentences. This shows an internal analysis of the subject matter. Listeners who interpret are likely to be observed as involved by the speaker.
A listener who signifies what the speaker says and the sensations which the speaker exhibited and utilizes their individual words and own sentence structure, at times through questions, reveals total engagement.
Explanation:
Barriers to Active Listening is termed as noise. Some specific examples of noise in the office are:
- Mobile phone distractions
- Difficult colleagues
- Not paying attention
The more you know about noise, the more you can learn about how to eliminate it. There are 5 main types of noise that are barriers to active listening.
1. External Distractions:
Visceral disruptions or things in your work atmosphere that distract your interest away from the person with whom you’re conversing
2. Speaker Distractions:
Any speaker eccentricities or distinguishing qualities that get in the way of receiving the speaker’s message. These include opinions by the audience member of the speaker such as ethos, sex, age, interaction style, and job role. For example, a professional Who is very left-brained may be tough for a promoting person who is also very right-brained to listen to.
3. Message Intent/Semantics:
Any expressions and phrases that can be misunderstood or have various meanings depending on who is using them or who is getting them. Abbreviations are a typical example. Nevertheless, people do not speak in full sentences or if they do, do not give the perspective to a dense message. People apparently abstain from telling the whole story
4. Emotional Language
Expressions that create emotion and, as a result, hinder understanding. Use of intense dialect such as “you always”, “we never”, “you must” or “we are forever” make it difficult for people to listen to a speaker
5. Personal Perspective
Significances that people carry with them, influencing the communication process. This may include preformed solutions in the mind of the listener that inhabit their mind when the speaker talks about a problem. The desire to find a solution is great and can stop us from listening.
Techniques to follow
1. External Distractions
This is the easiest of all barriers to overcome. Find a pleasant zone and sit with your back to spaces and away from traffic, both vehicular and people.
2. Speaker Distractions
This is one of the additional tricky barriers to surmount. The first step is to be self-aware that the speaker is engaging you. The trick, if you find the speaker is confusing you is to rephrase or echo often. Don’t allow the distraction to build to a point where you stop listening.
3. Message Intent/Semantics
This is simple to deal with by inviting questions of elucidation. Never let an abbreviation go uncontested and use “What…?” questions when the context is ambiguous. “What do you mean by..?” is the simplest form. “Under what circumstances do you see that affecting/being important/occurring…?” is another useful form.
4. Emotional Language
An Additional tricky one for those of us not in control of our own sensations. Although it may not seem spontaneous, given that we are talking about being able to interpret and indicate what the speaker is saying, this is the time to interrupt the speaker and call them out for the expressive/intense idiom. Tell them that you really want to pay attention to what they have to say and certainly want to participate, but it is very challenging to have a discussion when one person is using very emotive or intense language.
5. Personal Perspective
Individual perspective when listening is, to my mind, the most difficult noise to overcome. This is because the perspective usually activates sensations which put us in a place where we are not in full control of ourselves. The method is to watch for emotive triggers.
Are you already not listening?
Have you gone flush in the face?
Are you contemplating more about what you are going to say rather than focusing on what the speaker is saying?
If you can acknowledge that you are reacting weakly and if you cannot instantly recoup your active eavesdropping capability, then ask for a short break. Clear your head and focus on what was your goal of being an active listener.
Start the dialogue again with a sturdy grit to focus on what you want to achieve through being an active listener.
If you find that you cannot regain your active heeding capacity, you can either adjourn the dialogue or ask someone else less likely to join the conversation, after providing them an appropriate briefing
