What is Active Listening?

Everyday you spend a significant proportion of your day communicating with others. By developing your active listening skills you reduce the chance of misunderstandings. This enables you to identify issues, opportunities and solve problems, becoming more productive.

This eBook describes why it is so important to active listening to others. It explains how to overcome environmental and cultural barriers as well as those you create yourself. It describes how to use reflection, clarification and questioning to make your communications more effective.

Preface

Talking to other people one-to-one makes up a significant proportion of the total amount of communication that you are involved in each day. Active listening will reduce the chance of misunderstandings, help to solve problems, and allow you to take advantage of opportunities you may have previously missed. This eBook describes what active listening is and how it can make you a more effective manager.

You will learn:

• Why it is so important to actively listen
• The six aspects of listener orientation you should adopt
• How to use reflection and clarification in the context of active listening
• How to overcome the internal barriers to effective active listening
• How to integrate different types of questioning into active listening

Content

1. Characteristics of Active Listening
   1. Listener Orientation
   2. Reflective Technique
   3. Questioning Skills
2. Barriers to Active Listening
3. Advantages for Managers
4. Summary
5. References