Download Lesson Objectives

Focus Questions
 How do listening and hearing differ?
 How does effective listening differ when listening for
information and listening to support others?
 How can we improve our listening skills?
 What are effective ways to express support for others?
 How can you control obstacles to effective listening?
Listening and Responding to Others
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Listening and Responding
 People tend to more focus on talking
 Studies show: Average person spends 45%-
53% of waking time on listening to others
 Total listening may even greater (radio…,
background…)
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Hearing & Listening
 Hearing is a
physiological activity
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Sound wave & ear drum
Other messages
received at the same
time (sight)
 Listening
Listening and Responding to Others
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The Listening Process
 Being mindful
 Focus on what is happening in the moment
 An ethical commitment; Leaders must want to listen!
 Enhance communication
 Increasing understanding of what others feel & think
 Promoting more complete communication by others
 Physically receiving communication
 Women are more attuned to what is going on around
 Men tend to direct hearing in a specific way
 Women likely to notice contexts, details, themes in
interaction
 Average: 300 words/min understood; 100 spoken
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The Listening Process (2)
 Selecting and organizing communication
 Study: Teachers unintentionally give more attention to
male than female students…
 As we listen: categorize people→assess them →apply
stereotype→choose a script
 Perceptions can be wrong. Be ready to revise them!
 Interpreting communication
 Recognizing others’ viewpoint doesn’ t mean you agree
with them; it does mean you make an earnest effort to
grasp what they think and feel.
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The Listening Process (3)
 Responding

Signs of being involved in interaction
 Remembering
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Recall of literal messages vs. Recall of
interpretation of them
Memory fading
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Remember less than Half / immediately after
Recall 35% / after 8 hours
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Obstacles to Effective Listening
 Situational obstacles
 Message overload
 Message complexity
 Environmental distractions
 Internal Obstacles
 Preoccupation
 Prejudgment
 Lack of effort
 Not recognizing diverse listening styles
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Forms of Ineffective Listening
 Pseudo-listening
 Monopolizing
 Conversational rerouting
 Interrupting
 Selective listening
 Defensive listening
 Ambushing
 Politics: Gathering ammunition to use in attacking a
speaker
 Literal listening
 Content level vs. Relationship level of meaning
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Guidelines for Effective Listening
 Informational & critical listening
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Be mindful
Control obstacles
Ask questions
Use aids to recall
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Repeating
Mnemonics
Organize information
Listening and Responding to Others
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Guidelines for Effective Listening
 Relationship listening
 Be mindful
 Total listening: more than words, also silence &
meaning buried
 Suspend judgment
 Strive to understand the other’s perspective
 Minimum encouragers
 Paraphrasing
 Asking questions
 Express support
 See Father-Son conversation on page 170
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