4. ACTIVE LISTENING TECHNIQUES
The difference between just listening and active listening is that when you actively listen you have to take some actions, these actions are not how people/react naturally but skills/techniques you learn. These actions, understood as techniques are mandatory for a listener to know and use in order to be an effective communicator. Being more aware of what you're hearing can help you in both your professional and personal live. Listening helps employees feel heard in everyday interactions with co-workers, in networking for potential possibilities, and in maintaining sincere connections as a manager. The foundation of active listening is empathy, which is essential for creating lasting connections, but also information retention, conflict resolution, and emotion management can all be facilitated by active listening. In the following part the most important techniques that if someone wants to be a good active listener needs to know: Focus Being present during the conversation is a requirement for active listening. You have to pay a lot of attention to what is being said and be present by using all of your senses, including sight and not only sound. You must eliminate distractions, stop daydreaming, and silence your inner voice to make the most of this active listening approach. Keep your attention on your conversation partner and let the rest of the world fade away. A good practice to incorporate all of the above is to constantly watch the other persons eye/mouth and fully focus on his words. Watch for body language Your nonverbal cues during active listening are just as crucial. Use open, non-threatening body language to convey to the other person that you are attentive. This entails keeping your arms open, grinning while you listen, leaning in, and nodding at significant moments. Try to keep the conversation going A must-have skill for a supervisor is to know how to make others open up and share important information with them; which will help (the supervisor) bond and learn more about his/her team dynamics. The skill to learn in order to succeed in keeping the conversation going is asking open-ended questions, so in that way you will likely learn more about that individual and the conversation will flow more smoothly. Dead-end replies are frequently obtained from "yes or no" questions, so you must not ask these kinds of questions. They prevent the conversation from moving along while active listening, which is not helpful, these kinds of questions make it challenging to pay attention to what the other person is saying because a succinct, non-descriptive response doesn't offer much in the way of insight. Ask open-ended questions as an alternative to demonstrate your interest in the topic and the other person. These kinds of questions that are considered open-ended are a great approach to get the discussion going. Open-ended questions empower people to share their opinions and ideas as opposed to inquiries that only offer a few possibilities for responding. Using the open-ended approach demonstrates your concern when you pay attention to what people have to say and, in the meantime, express interest in and respect for their opinions, and the results can be profound. Mental notes When the conversation is active, you as a listener should hear carefully and “write” notes inside your head, you should “write” all the emotions the talker registered, and all the main talking points. In that way you can be sure you accurately recorded their thoughts, ideas, and feelings by using this active listening technique. Additionally, it reduces the likelihood of any misunderstandings while making the other person feel validated and understood. Paraphrasing is one approach to reflect what you've heard. Say something like, "What you are saying is that you are frustrated, right?" as an example. Give the person a chance to comment on whether you accurately represented their meaning or intent after summarizing what they said. Ask for clarification if necessary to better grasp something the other person has said. However, don't get caught up in the little print to the point where you overlook the bigger picture. Be patient and don’t judge Consider the plethora of advantages of being patient in the workplace but in everyday life as well as motivation to become a more patient person. Also, in conversations it permits the other person to speak uninterrupted which can help them trust you and open up helping you gather all necessary information; that why patience is a crucial active listening skill.