Oral Communication

January 20, 2020

Listening Styles

People Oriented
This mostly concerned with creating and maintaining positive relationships.
People Oriented listeners are:
 Sensitive to others’ moods and respond to speaker’s feelings as well as their ideas,
 Non-judgemental about what others have to say
 More interested in understanding and supporting people than in evaluating them

Action Oriented
Concerned with the ask at hand. The main goal is to understand facts and ideas being
communicated

Content Oriented
These listeners are evaluators. They want to hear details and analyse an issue from a
variety of perspectives. They prefer to listen to experts and credible sources of
information. The often enjoy ideas for their own sake and are willing ot spend time
exploring them in thorough exchanges of ideas.

Time Oriented
Time oriented listeners are most concerned with efficiency. They view time as a scare
and valuable commodity. And get impatient with people who they view as wasting it.

Effective Listening
Minimize distractions both physical and psychological
Talk less
Pay attention to verbal and non-verbal ques
Ask questions
Paraphrasing – when you restate a speaker’s ideas in your own word to make sure you
have understood them correctly