BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE

LISTENING
• With any task, your physical state plays an important role in your ability to
listen effectively and absorb information. If you are feeling uneasy in your
own skin, you are far more likely to be fidgety, agitated and ‘all over the
place’ mentally.
Here are just a few of the physical issues that can negatively affect your
listening skills:
Hunger
• Tiredness
• Physical pain
• Depression/Anxiety
• Sitting on an uncomfortable surface

If you are dealing with any of the above, your attention is already divided and
listening will be that extra bit harder.
• PHYSIOLOGICAL BARRIERS

• May arise from health issues such as fatigue, sleeplessness.

Dementia, deafness, hearing difficulties
• . Your personal mind set
• Conversations don’t exist in a vacuum. When you are communicating with another
person, a whole world of personal emotions and bias are at play. Do you like the
person? Do you have preconceived ideas about what they are sharing? Do they
remind you of another person you didn’t get along with?
Our own mind set can be one of the biggest barriers to effective listening. Here are
just a few of the factors that can play into our personal attitudes and judgements.

Prejudice – Our own prejudice against certain groups is nothing to be proud of. Our
own unconscious prejudices can mean that we don’t give certain people the attention
they deserve when they are speaking.
• Jealousy – Did Ms. X or Mr. Y get the promotion you were after? Have they just
landed a big contract or made a big sale? It can be easy to let our own little green
monster stand in the way of effective listening when we are seething with envy.
• Boredom – None of us are perfect, and sometimes we get bored at the most
inappropriate times! Boredom with the topic at hand can certainly cause your mind
to wander and your listening skills to go down the drain.
• Interrupting the other person

• Nothing makes a speaker feel more disrespected than being constantly interrupted. Of course, a conversation
is usually a ‘2 way street,’ and you are meant to share your own thoughts and opinions. The problem starts
when you accidentally monopolise the conversation and constantly interject your own opinions.
When you do interject too much, you start missing the nuance of what is being said, leading to mistakes.
You’ll also be sending the message that you don’t care much about what they have to say – this cause conflict.
Are you just waiting for the speaker to stop talking?
Sometimes a conversation is so exciting and interesting that you simply feel like you can’t wait to share your
ideas! Maybe you're worried about forgetting your point, or you think your example is better than the one
currently being shared. Either way, it can cause you to jump into the conversation at every opportunity. You’re
not listening fully, you’re actually just waiting for the other party to stop talking. You're not hearing everything
that they have to say.
Fight the urge to over-empathise by sharing your own experiences
Interrupting someone is not always a negative or selfish instinct. In fact, it can actually be a sign that your
compassion and empathy is working in overdrive!
This can be especially problematic when the topic is sensitive or hard to approach. While you might be
genuinely trying to boost their morale and show them that you understand their issue, you can accidentally
come across as try to ‘steal their thunder’ and one up them. As they bristle, they might get defensive,
preventing them from sharing the information that you need.