What are the 3 steps in the listening process?
Active listening skills arent just a nice-to-have. They improve communication, strengthen relationships, boost team performance, spur personal and professional growth, and play a huge role in leadership excellence. Show Taken further, active listening is not just functional. Its effective. How so? Anyone who has experienced good listening can understand its power.When someone listens to you well, you feel validated, understood, and often more invested in the listener and your shared goals. Moreover, active listening helps you feel more positive about the interaction itselfeven if that interaction makes forays into difficult territory. Which leads us to our central point: Active listening is actually the first step toward effective listeninga key component of high-level communication that helps practitioners spur progress and accomplish goals. Here, well look at 2 key parts of activating your listening skills:
Lets tune in. A Closer Look at Active ListeningActive listening hinges on attention and engagement. But before you focus on either, you must choose to approach your improvement with intentionality and determination, because it might be a big changeand challenge! Begin with these tactics: Give Full Attention to the SpeakerAttention is key to active listening. Obvious, perhaps. But also far more easily said than done. How often does your attention wander when youre listening to someone? And even when you areengaged, something thats said can easily trigger a memory or opinion in your own brain, at which point your attention moves to your own thinking rather than the words of the speaker. Awareness is the first step in overcoming this listening trap: accept and be aware that your mind might wander, and when it does, consciously return your attention to the speaker. By going into the conversation with this awareness, youre more likely to catch your mistake and fix it. And go easy on yourself! Everyones attention shifts throughout conversations, so dont get down if progress is slow at first. In fact, you should cheer yourself on for the awareness youre developing! The next step is a big help to attention as well. Convey Interest with Verbal &Non-Verbal CuesThis is a twofer: by making an effort to show that youre actively listening through your words and gestures, you
As you practice these active listening techniques, you will not only enhance your overall communication skills but also help others feel comfortable communicating openly and honestly. From Active to Effective ListeningEffective listening takes all the benefits of active listing and turns up the volume. It helps people and teams build understanding, efficiency, and progress toward goals, such as
The key is to communicate understanding and caring through your listeningwithout saying a word. Weve touched on the fact that most effective listening problems are rooted in a focus on self: Im too wrapped up in thoughts about what Im going to say next, how I look, whether my breath is okay, and even whether I seem attentive. The secret to effective listening lies in overcoming this. To do so, we clarify our focus with a simple, other-centered framework:
Well call this the HUC framework: Hear, Understand, Care. Hearing is the first and most basic step: This is where those active listening skills come in. We want to use these tactics to help tune in and really hear the other person, rather than focusing on our own thoughts. Understanding is the next step: Do the listeners words make sense to me? If not, am I asking clarifying questions to support my understanding? Caring is the final and most advanced step: Do I genuinely care about what this person is saying? Am I not just engaged in this conversation, but also invested in it? Key Point: Effective Listening is NOT AgreementNotice that none of the HUC questions touch on whether or not I agree. In fact, the question of agreement distracts me from my ability to listen effectively. It keeps me tuned into myself and what I want to say next. The HUC questions are specifically designed to help you avoide the distraction of agree or disagree and instead practice effective listening. How to Practice Effective ListeningTo start practicing your effective listening skills, begin with this coming week: commit to simply keep the 3 HUC questions in mind during any social or professional conversations. After this practice period, most people have had some success with HUCtheyve started exercising their effective listening muscles. But their minds still wander while trying to listen actively. This is normal! If your thoughts drift while youre listening, try placing your HUC framework directly into the conversation through questions. This helps you realign your thinking to the effective listening approach. Some examples:
When you practice these active listening questions, the benefit is twofold:
A Final Note of EncouragementActive, intentional listening is key to the type of interpersonal communication that ignites solutions and forward progress. But if listening is not your strong suit today, remember this key point: Good listening is a skill, not an attribute. Heres a quick rundown on this difference and why it matters:
In other words, if youre no good at listening today, not to worry! You can learn this. And the fact that you know its not a skill youve mastered is a great first step in becoming an excellent student of it. Practice, study, and perseverance will reap great rewards. The benefits of your efforts may include
Happy hearing! |