1. Listening
Understanding the
Most Difficult Skill

2. Understanding Listening Skills
Introduction
• For decades, there are
complaints about people
lacking of listening skills.
• Even though listening is the
communication skill we use
most frequently, it is also
the skill in which we’ve
had the least training.

3. Understanding Listening Skills
Introduction
• Unfortunately, many
experts say that a
person only remembers
a fraction of what is
said to them.
• And studies also
confirm that most of us
are poor and inefficient
listeners.

4. Understanding Listening Skills
Barriers to Effective Listening
• Listening barriers
may be:
– Psychological:
• the listener's
emotions.
– Physical:
• noise and visual
distraction.

5. Understanding Listening Skills
Barrier 01 – Low Concentration
• Low concentration can
be the result of:
– Psychological situation:
• lack of interest in the
subject material, stress or
personal bias.
– Physical situations:
• such as visual
distractions, physical
discomfort, inadequate
volume.

6. Understanding Listening Skills
Barrier 02 - Trying too hard
• Listeners need to be able to prioritize
the information they receive in order
to pick out what is most important.
• Often, the information that the
audience needs to know is delivered
along with information that is less
pertinent or even not relevant at all.
• When listeners give equal weight to
everything they hear, it makes it
difficult to organize and retain the
information they need.

7. Understanding Listening Skills
Barrier 03 - Jumping ahead
• When listening to a speaker's
message, it is common to
sometimes overlook aspects of
the conversation before all of
the information is presented.
• It tends to cause listeners to
enter the conversation before
the speaker finishes her
message and, as a result, form
opinions without first obtaining
all pertinent information.

8. Understanding Listening Skills
Barrier 04 - Focusing on style, not substance
• When listening to a speaker,
we can get distracted by other
elements than the message that
has been transmitted.
• A different approach or the
style that the speaker
communicates can draw the
listener's attention away from
the real information, affecting
his opinion unfairly.

9. Understanding Listening Skills
Barrier 05 - Cultural Differences
• Cultural differences
(including speakers' accents,
vocabulary, and
misunderstandings) can also
obstruct the listening
process.
• To avoid this obstruction,
listeners should make a
point of being aware of
potential cultural
differences in advance.

10. Understanding Listening Skills
Conclusion
• Don’t expect to become a good
listener overnight since it demands
time, patience, concentration and hard
work.
• This means we need to make a real
effort to listen carefully and
concentrate more of our mental
capacity on the listening act.
• So think of listening as a skill that
must be mastered.
• Learn to be where the conversation is,
concentrating on every second of it.

11. • The following are referenced in
this presentation:
– Dr. Carol Kinsey Goman
http://www.workcabin.ca/articles/hr-
articles/why-listening-so-difficult/
– Bob Weinstein
http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/25
082/Why-listening-is-so-difficult
– Mike Shoultz
http://www.digitalsparkmarketing.com
/creative-marketing/effective-
listening-skills-2/
– Information Listening
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informati
onal_listening
Understanding Listening Skills
Our References

12. Understanding Listening Skills
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