HORMUUD UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Economic and Management

Science
Business Communication
CHAPTER (3)
Effective Listening
Prepared by: ABDULLAHI DAHIR MOHAMED

Coach Abdullahi Dahir Mohamed Ali 1

 welcoming
welcome and we thank you for coming
please ..
Keep these agreements

Turn off/ Silent ask

Don't be late

Note Coach Abdullahi Dahir Mohamed Ali listen 2

 Brief Contents

• Effective vs ineffective listening

• Types of listening

• How to become an effective

listener
Coach Abdullahi Dahir Mohamed Ali 3
 Learning Objectives
When you have completed your study of this
chapter, you will be able to

 Define Effective Listening

 Understand the difference between
Effective & ineffective listening
• Explain The Types of listening
 Others

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 Introduction

• According to studies,

within 24 hours, people

are able to recall only

about one-fourth of

what they heard

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 Introduction

WRONG!!!

• Listening is easy

• Listening comes naturally

• Hearing and listening are the

same
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 What Effective Listening Is?

Effective Listening is actively absorbing the

information given to you speaker showing that are
listening and interested and providing feedback to
the speaker so the he or she knows the massage
was received

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 Facts about Listening

• Listening is our primary communication activity.

• Most individuals are inefficient listeners

• Inefficient and ineffective listening is

extraordinarily costly.

• Good listening can be taught.

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Ineffective Listening Habits

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 Ineffective Listening Habits

1. Deciding in advance that the subject is

uninteresting
– Poor listeners learn what the talk is about and decide
immediately that the subject is of no interest to
them. Instead of listening they think of something
else, write meaningless things on their notepad etc.

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 Ineffective Listening Habits
2. Focusing on the poor delivery of the speaker
– Poor listeners focus on the appereance or delivery
of the speaker. Inappropriately dressed speakers, as
well as the ones that punctuates their speech with
“uh” or “er” distracts ineffective listener

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 Ineffective Listening Habits

3. Becoming overexcited and anxious to make

your own point
– Poor listeners want to run ahead of the
conversation. Especially if it is a subject that they
have some knowledge, their minds race ahead to
plan their own sentences.

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 Ineffective Listening Habits
4. Focusing only on facts
– Poor listeners listens only for the facts, but later
when they try to remember them, they often missed
the less concrete but more important concepts and
ideas behind the facts.

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 Ineffective Listening Habits
5. A tendency to outline everything

– Poor listeners tend to outline

lectures or speeches. However if
these talks are not well organized
by the speaker, when later
reviewed, these notes provide
little insight to what was said

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 Ineffective Listening Habits

6. Pretending to pay attention

– Poor listeners are often tired, lazy or bored. They
pretend to listen in an attentive posture and then
mentally drift away.

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 Ineffective Listening Habits

7. Allowing distractions to interfere

– Distractions can be a noise that interferes with one’s
ability to hear, or a visual done that attract’s one’s
attention away from the listener. Poor listeners take a
very passive role and allows distractions to interfere
with the listening process

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 Ineffective Listening Habits

8. Avoiding difficult material

– Poor listeners do not try to listen to material that
seems difficult for them

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 Ineffective Listening Habits
9. Responding emotionally to certain words or
phrases
– There are certain terms, phrases and words that
affect people in an emotional way which makes
some individuals block out the rest of the
conversation

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 Ineffective Listening Habits

10.Daydreaming because of difference between

speech speed and thought speed
– People speak about 150 words per minute. Listeners
are capable of processing 500-700 words per minute.
Poor listener often becomes involved in a daydrean
and forgets to tune back in

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Effective Listening Habits

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 Effective Listening Habits

1. Accepting the challenge to get

something of worth out of every
situation
– Good listeners may find the subject
boring, but they accept the challenge and
make the most of the situation by focusing
on the speaker’s message, and try to
derive something from the encounter
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 Effective Listening Habits
2. Focus on what is being said
rather than how it is being
said
– Effective listeners simply ignore
a speaker’s poor delivery or
annoying mannerisms and focus
on what is being said

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 Effective Listening Habits
3. Waiting for the entire
presentation before beginning
evaluation
– Effective listeners do not jump to
conclusions about what is being
said, instead wait for the
presentation to conclude before
beginning their overall evaluation
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 Effective Listening Habits

4. Focusing exclusively on the main

ideas
– Good listeners look for the main ideas.
Once the overall ideas of the talk are
understood, the facts can be
remembered as logical components

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 Effective Listening Habits

5. Limiting their notetaking

– Good listeners sit back and listen before picking up
a pencil.

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 Effective Listening Habits

6. Listening actively
– Listening requires energy and
attention. The good listener not
only hears effectively but also
observes the nonverbal signs of
the speaker

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 Effective Listening Habits
7. Avoiding distractions or at least controlling
them
– Effective listeners try to control their environment
by screening out distractions.

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 Effective Listening Habits

8. Listening to challenging
material
– The good listener occasionally
seeks out the difficult subjects to
challenge his/her listening skills

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 Effective Listening Habits

9. Filtering out emotion-laden words

to challenging material
– Effective listeners examine those words
and phrases that have an emotional
effect on them, and being aware of this
problem helps them to overcome the
listening barrier

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 Effective Listening Habits

10.Spending extra time on thoughts

related to the material being
heard
– Effective listeners spend their extra
thoughts on materials related to
the talk to fill in the extra time
between speech speed and thought
speed. Coach Abdullahi Dahir Mohamed Ali 30
 Types of Listening
• Appreciative
• Discriminative
• Comprehensive
• Critical
• Active

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 Types of Listening

• Appreciative: An
individualized form of
listening that obtain
enjoyment through the
words or experiences of
others; like listening to
one’s favourite music or
watching tv... Coach Abdullahi Dahir Mohamed Ali 32
 Types of Listening

• Discriminative: Happens
when people try to
distinguish one sound from
everything else; like
stopping work to hear if
the phone is ringing

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 Types of Listening

• Comprehensive: Happens
when people listen for
understanding. Involves
trying hard to remember
what the person is saying
and to interpret the meaning
as precisely as possible.
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 Types of Listening

• Critical: Help the listener

sift through what he/she
has heard and make a
decission

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 Types of Listening
• Active: Also called empathic
listening, involves more than
just paying attention or
listening carefully. It also entails
empathic and supportive
behaviours that tell the speaker
“I understand. Please go on”
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 Listening Response Modes
• Directing / Judgemental

• Advising / Solving
• Interpreting
• Supportive

• Questioning

• Empathic / active

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 Responding Skills
• Directing / Judgemental

– say what is right or wrong, good or bad, passes judgment

– Ex. “That was stupid!” “That’s right!”

• Advising/solving – shares advice/offers a solution

– Ex. “If I were you I would…” “Why don’t you…”

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 Responding Skills

• Interpreting

– Analyze, explain or teach the sender about the cause

– Ex. “She probably did this because…”

• Supportive

– Reassure, pacify or comfort

– Ex. “If there is any way I can help…”

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 Responding Skills

• Questioning

– Probes, clarifies, inquires or seeks more info

– Ex. “What makes you think that?” “Where were
you?”
– Open questions – require more than a yes or no
answer
– Closed questions – can be answered with yes or no

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 Using Response Styles

• 80% of your feedback will use 1 of 5 styles

• Directing / Judgemental
– Doesn’t help unless sender asks for advice

• Interpreting
– Works best when your intention is to offer insight into the
problem’s causes
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 Using Response Styles

• Supporting

– Works best when the sender has determined the

problem and needs encouragement

• Questioning

– When your need for additional info is genuine

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 Becoming an active listener
• Listen for total meaning
• Respond to feelings
• Note all cues
• Take time to listen
• Be attentive

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 Becoming an active listener
• Employ only three kinds of verbal reactions:
encouraging sounds such as uh-huh; restating
what has been said; and silence with a nod of
head
• Avoid probing for additional facts

• Always give positive feedback

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The end of chapter

Thank you for listening

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