Listening Skills

Effective communication requires the ability to listen to what others are saying or responding to what you are saying or communicating. You gain feedback from listening and this provides you with the opportunity to adjust or clarify your message accordingly to ensure that it is being received ion the way that you intended.

Being an active listener by paying attention to what others might be saying and then reflecting on this to make a judgement for what you might do next. In some cases, it might be acknowledging something which has just been said, showing empathy to the speaker, responding to a question which has been posed, or changing some aspect of your message or the way you are communicating it.

A good listener can help to rapidly build a rapport with others, better understand concerns and problems which might arise in workplace and can be better placed to be able to resolve a problem or at the least offer constructive opinion on what might be an appropriate next step. Motivating team members can often start with being a good listener, trying to capture enough information to be able to decide on an appropriate approach to take.