Listening Skills

Importance of Listening Skills:

Listening skills are important in business settings as these skills
improve the overall productivity rate of organizations by improving
the quality of work done by individuals who listen efficiently
Listening skills help one resolve conflicts through dialogue in both
formal and informal settings
Efficient listening skills help individuals build trust
These skills improve the ability to influence
Listening skills help us learn in dynamic ways.
Listening skills help us negotiate effectively
Effective listening
Listening can be made effective by
• Listening to understand
• Focusing on non-verbal communication
• Lowering physical barriers
• Minimizing emotional barriers
 Listening to Understand
For communication to be effective, the sender and the receiver must be aware of their
goals. Thus, the listener must have a goal of understanding the content being
communicated in order for the communication to be successful.
In order to listen to understand, the listener should listen with undivided attention.
Undivided attention can be achieved by:
• Facing the speaker
• Maintaining Eye contact
• Minimizing external interactions
• Turning off your internal chatter
• Responding with interest
• Keeping an open mind
• Being engaged in conversation
Focusing on Non-verbal Cues
Knowingly paying attention to the non-verbal cues allows one to
understand the unintended message of the speaker, making
communication more effective

Lowering Physical Barriers:

Listening will be effective if the physical barriers to listening are
removed
Physical barriers include noisy environment, an environment that
makes one lose focus by being unpleasant to other senses, using
gadgets, having music in the background etc.
Lowering Emotional Barriers
Emotional barriers include
• Making assumptions that hinder our understanding and activate our
defense mechanisms
• Being defensive about our opinion, and thus not listening to
understand
• Having a close mind to anything that does not appeal to our senses
• Having ego which will not allow one to listen to anything that does
not satisfy the individual’s self-esteem
Introduction to Speaking Skills
Speaking makes up most of our communication, as speaking is the
articulation of sound to convey meaningful thoughts. We use
speaking to convey our thoughts all the time.
Speaking skills are those skills that we require to speak effectively and
be understood among a larger group of people.
Speaking skills are needed to communicate effectively, as majority of
the people are able to speak, but not everyone is able to convey the
thoughts in an effective manner.
Speaking skills ensure that the other person is not misunderstood
Speaking Situations
Speaking situations refer to the situations or settings in which
speaking is done
There are three types of speaking situations
• Interactive
• Partially interactive
• Non-interactive
Interactive speaking situation is one in which both the audience and
the receiver are in a position to respond to each other. It comprises
of both face to face, and telephonic conversation as both the
participants are able to answer each other
Speaking Situations Continued…
Partially interactive situations are those in which one participant is
speaking while the other(s) are not allowed to/ not able to respond as
per the conventions. For instance, in a seminar, or a conference, one
speaker is communicating with the audience who do not respond.
However, the speaker can easily know whether he is being
understood or not based on the non-verbal response of the audience
Non-interactive situations are those situations in which the speaker is
not in a position to interact with the audience. These include a
situation where someone is interacting through a recorded radio
program, or a live Facebook chat.
Consciously Improving Speaking Skills
Speaking skills need conscious efforts for improvement. We need to
consciously put our efforts into speaking in order to enhance the said
skill.
Speaking in random conversations requires one to consciously invest
in the following:
Listening Actively: The first step to speaking well is to listen actively.
In any conversation, one must listen actively to understand the
argument/ flow of conversation. Only then can one analyze the data
and respond in a focused and organized manner.
Consciously Improving Speaking Skills
Assessing information: One must assess and analyze information in a
proper way to understand all parts of the message critically so that the
message composed as a response answers the sender’s statement in a
comprehensive manner.
Organizing Information: After one has actively listened to someone, it is
important to quickly organize the information in one’s head before
articulating it. Speaking skills are only enhanced with practice, therefore, it
is important to consciously practice organizing in one;s head before
speaking.
Structuring the content: One should structure the content in the form of
speech before speaking it. For instance, one could begin with an
introduction, then give the supporting arguments before finally bringing
the spoken idea to an end.
Consciously Improving Skills Continued
> Being conscious of the non-verbal communication: During the final
delivery or articulation, the speaker should be aware of the non-verbal
language e.g a good voice, speed of speech, polite hand gestures, a
posture that conveys confidence and courtesy, etc.
Speeches
There are four modes of speeches according to delivery:
Impromptu
Extempore
Memorization
Reading
Impromptu: Refers to the type of public speaking in which one is not
given any time at all to think before delivering the speech. The speaker
is given a topic and is expected to start speaking right away
Extempore: Speaking extempore means that a speaker is given a topic,
and is expected to speak on that topic in quite a few minutes.
Extempore speaking gives enough time to brainstorm ideas or make an
outline, but does not allow the speaker to prepare the speech in
advance.
Reading: Reading is a pre-planned speech, where a speaker brings a
written speech with him/ her and delivers it by reading through it.
Memorization: Memorization refers to learning something by heart.
This kind of speech is pre-planned and is learnt by heart before
delivery.
There are four types of speeches based on
their purpose
Informative: Informative speeches always inform the audience about
something. Basically, these speeches are a representation of data and
sharing of knowledge.
Demonstrative: Demonstrative speeches are those in which the speaker
not only gives information but also practically shows how something is
done, e.g delivering a speech on how to stitch clothes in a stitching school,
or practically demonstrating how to use guitar in an art school
Persuasive: Persuasive speeches intend to convince the audience on a
certain stance
Entertaining: Entertaining speeches are those speeches which intend to
delight the audience, for example stand-up comedy
Preparing for a Speech
If one is aware of an upcoming public speaking event, one must
prepare well in advance to ensure effective speaking skills while
delivering the speech. In order to have a good public speaking
experience, one must take care of these important things:
Preparing in advance: Always prepare your written document, or
ideas well in advance in order to be able to be confident and stay
motivated
Keeping notes: Being human, one has the tendency to forget, which
might act as a demotivating factor. It is important that one keeps
notes so that forgetting something does not lead to nervousness,
demotivation, or confusion and maintains one’s confidence
Knowing your audience: Knowing one’s audience helps in preparing
according to the expectations of the audience. This leads to an energetic
and well-satisfied audience, which boosts the morale of the speaker. One
must know one’s audience and prepare accordingly
Confidence: Confidence can be demonstrated through one’s body language
as well as speaking. In order to maintain confidence, one must be
well-prepared and organized so that audience’s questions or reactions do
not cause nervousness
Visualizing and practicing: In order to maintain confidence, one can also
practice by visualizing the upcoming situations
Being aware of the body language: having a good voice, modulation, pitch,
maintaining eye contact, using bodily gestures all make up a good speaker
who is able to maintain the attention of his or her audience. This leads to
motivation of the speaker as s/he is aware of being prepared enough to
satisfy the audience and keep their attention intact.
Logical Fallacies in Arguments that Affect
Speaking Skills