Effective Listening Skills

Listening is an essential part of communication. Speaking and listening go together and oral communication cannot be effective without proper listening. Listening is a deliberate effort and is much more than hearing. It requires getting the full meaning of what is being said.

Listening effectively takes skill, self-motivation, and practice. Effective listening means concentrating on what the speaker says rather than on how it is said. Lack of attention and respectful listening can be costly - leading to mistakes, poor service, misaligned goals, wasted time and lack of teamwork.

Listening is so important that many top employers provide listening skills training for their employees. This is not surprising when you consider that good listening skills can lead to better customer satisfaction, greater productivity with fewer mistakes, and increased sharing of information that in turn can lead to more creative and innovative work.