Listening

                                                                  

                                                                   Listening is one of the most important parts of Oral communication. When you listen, you must get meaning from what's being said before you can respond.It is one of the mandatory social traits for a good communicator.Listening is a major learning tool and plays a vital role in human relation. listening not only means not speaking or just hearing, but involves reacting through,

• Eye Contact
• Posture
• Gesture
• Using of Paraphrase     

                                                                   Research says that a manager spends 45% of his work time in listening. The remaining 30%,16% and 9% in speaking, reading and writing respectively. Generally people have the desire to be heard, to be appreciated and to be accepted. The purpose of listening  may vary such as for gathering information, for problem solving or for maintaining human relationship.
                                                                   Content listening is choosen when your need is only to understand and retain the speaker's message even if you don't agree or disapprove. Critical listening is done when we stick to the logic of the argument or when we need a validity of the conclusion. Empathic listening is done to understand speaker's feeling and to help them solve the problem. Active listening is done to show concern over other's views and feelings, whether you agree or not.
Really good listeners are rare. Most people have one of these bad listening habits.

• Faking listening
• Over listening
• Limited attention span
• Criticizing delivery or appearance
• Avoiding subjects as uninteresting
• Avoiding difficult listening

                                                                   These bad habits are reflected in the attitude of the listeners. When the listener does not understand the speakers message, it is only the listener's blame because, most of the bad listening habits are the listener's fault and definetly not the speaker's fault or either the subject of the message.

When the speaker delivers a message the listener should be empathic into the speaker's situation and try to understand him. This could be developed only through practice . Trying not to interrupt the speaker and encouraging him through signs such as nodding of head, a smile or even paraphrasing makes a good listener.





                                                                                            - Gurusheela Palanichamy
                                          

Communication Mistakes

 

                                                       

 

                                                     Communication is the activity whereby any individual transmits information to another individual or group. Generally, communication can be done through verbal or non-verbal that is through the signs and signals. In a workplace or group organization, anybody needs to communicate with people in and around . The accuracy of the information delivered is probably low when it is not so effective. Any human being is sensitive to communication. The so called zero-defect is very hard to achieve while communicating.

 

                                                      One biggest mistake done is, Using inappropriate form of communication to convey your thoughts and ideas. This in turn reduces the essence of your communication. Nevertheless, a computer presentation is needed to deliver your idea to a layman.

 

                                                    

                                              Most of the time, communication is rendered in a sender oriented view rather a receiver oriented view. Our usual misconception is that sending a message alone, makes the communication a success. But it is definitely not so. The purpose of the communication is to make the other end understand what we try to deliver.  

                                                   

 

                                                Some communication fails due to the lack of listening. When a conversation is done between two, one gets preoccupied with his/her own perception resulting in the improper intake of the other's message. The first step of effectiveness in communication is achieved through listening others. Although, communication cannot solve all the problem, we can see to that there is no problem due to miscommunication. A break in communication occurs when we are not ready to accept the contradictory ideas or criticism from others. Eliminating these mistakes in communication leads us to unforeseen smooth relation maintenance with other.

                                                        

 

 

                                                         Underestimating your audience's intelligence and misunderstanding their understanding level are biggest mistakes. The focus on the message that is to be communicated in the audience's or receiver's understandable format is needed.

 

      The rules for better understanding in communication are:

• Expect to be misunderstood by at least some of our listeners or readers.
• Expect to misunderstand others.

 

                                                        

Mistakes are hard to uncover. Too much of communication is ineffective.

We can strive to reduce the degree of such misunderstanding, but can never totally eliminate it.