Dr Surbhi Kapur

IS ANYONE LISTENING ?

“THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD ARE

ISLANDS SHOUTING AT EACH
OTHER ACROSS A SEA OF
MISUNDERSTANDING”
 SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND,
THEN TO BE UNDERSTOOD
In conversations
 We tend to evaluate or
advise
Instead understand the
 Thoughts and feelings of
the other without
evaluation and advice
 Seek first to understand
LISTENING MUST TAKES PLACE AT TWO LEVELS

 Level of words
 Level of feelings
 We constantly speak the
language of feelings
 Rarely listen at that level
 If you don’t how a person
feels, you don’t
understand him/her
 HEARING IS NOT LISTENING

Voluntary Involuntary
 Requires  Happens
conscious effort automatically
 Passive process
 Active process
 One-way
 Two way process process
RULES FOR GOOD LISTENING
 Stop talking
 Stop thinking and focus on
the speech
 Remove distractions
 Do not pre-judge
 Be patient: Interrupt when
speaker takes a pause and
invites you to do so
 Empathize, don’t lose your
temper
 Take notes
 LISTENING PROCESS

Receiving
Decoding
Remembering
Evaluating
Responding
 BARRIERS

PHYSICAL • Noise, distractions, distance

PSYCHOLOGICAL • Emotional turbulence, anxiety

• Improper decoding, unclear

LINGUISTIC language, jargon

• Different values, norms,

CULTURAL preconceived notions and
prejudices
Barriers
 Noise
 Inattention
 Impaired hearing
 Listeners who jump to conclusions close their mind to
additional information
 Self-centered listeners shift attention from speaker to
themselves
 Selective listeners
Types of Listening - I
Content Listening
 Understand and Retain the message
 It doesn’t matter that you approve or disapprove, just
understand
 When you listen to a regional sales manager’s report on
how many products were sold that month, you listen for
content
Types of Listening - II
Critical listening
 Involves evaluating the logic of the argument
 The strength of evidence
 Implications of the msg for you and your organization
 The speaker’s intentions and motives
 Omission of important and relevant points
Example
When the regional sales manager presents the sales
projection for the next few months, you listen critically,
evaluating whether the estimates are valid and what are
the implications for your manufacturing department
Types of Listening - III
Empathic Listening
 The goal is to understand the speaker’s feelings, needs
and wants, point of view
 Subordinates who come with problems need a reassuring
atmosphere
 Just let the other person talk to vent his feelings
 Do not get emotional in order to keep balance of
impartial justice
Active listening means
taking personal
responsibility to see that:
What I wanted to convey
(thoughts and feelings) was
received and
What the other party wanted to
convey (thoughts and feelings) was
rightly understood and
Ifnot, distortions are clarified
before going further
ACTIVE LISTENING INCLUDES

A conscious effort to turn off biases

Appropriate facial expressions and gestures

Questions to verify key points

Eye contact

Minimum interruption

Paraphrase

Notes to aid memory

 Specific Questions
Ask specific (or closed-ended) questions
to get details:
•Who?
•What?
•Where?
•When?
•Why?
•Which?
•How many?
 Active Listening Skills
• Mirroring—repeating exactly some of the
speaker’s key words
• Paraphrasing—using your own words to
restate the speaker’s feelings or
meaning
• Summarizing—condensing and
stressing the speaker’s important points
• Questioning/Clarifying - asking questions
to ensure understanding
(continued)
 Dealing With An Angry
Customer Or Client Using
Active Listening Skills
 Questioning: open ended questions
 Empathizing: putting yourself in other’s shoes
 Diffusing techniques(nonverbals): giving attention
 Offering help through a question: “Would you like me
to…?”
 Anticipating and controlling the situation:
 “We have been working on your problem. We should
have an answer to it by…Will that be ok? We assure
you that we will keep trying till its straightened out”
 OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS
Ask open-ended questions to:
• Begin a discussion - “What do you
think about …”
• Understand the speaker’s ideas -
“Can you tell me …”
• Examine a touchy subject - “How
do you feel about …”
• Avoid influencing an answer - “Tell
me more about …”
 Keeping the Speaker Speaking

“I understand.”

“Tell me more.”

“Let’s talk about it.”

“I see.”

“This seems very important to you.”

“I’d like to hear your point of view.”

“Really.”
 READING:
RECEIVING AND INTERPRETING TEXT

 Reading process
includes
 Decoding
 Comprehending
 Text Analysis
 Response
 Intensive
reading

Styles of
Skimming
reading

Scanning
 Active Reading
Not a passive process of absorbing the message but an active
involvement with the text

Note down
Underline or Summarize after
Identify questions
highlight reading a
keywords before and
important parts section of text
while reading
 SQ3R

STRATEGY FOR BETTER

READING

Re
Survey Question Read Restate
view
FOR EFFICIENT READING:

Avoid moving your lips when you read, it slows the speed
Try to see relation between title, headings and subheadings
Pay attention to words in italics
Read the preface, contents, introduction
Pay attention to the first sentence in a paragraph
Avoid re-reading and backward glances
Read summaries at the end of chapters
Concentrate on meaning not so much on words
Talk about your reading with others