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Home Blog Business Active Listening and the Art of Engaging your Audience

Active Listening and the Art of Engaging your Audience

As a presenter, one of the hardest things to master is to engage your audience in a manner that focuses on your message, absorbs the information, and responds thoughtfully. In the era of smartphones and short attention spans, engaging your audience can be harder than ever. But not impossible! To understand how to reach out to your audience, you need to make them actively listen to your message. In other words, you need to understand and master the art of active listening and use it to engage your audience.

What is Active Listening?

Active listening involves the listener carefully understand, remember and thoughtfully respond to what they have heard. The technique of active listening entails conducting engaging conversations without judgment. Active listening can help individuals objectively understand the information and respond after carefully considering the context and non-verbal cues. The latter might include cues such as the pitch of someone’s voice or body language.

Active listening is a soft skill that is common in different professions. Some examples of active listening include people delivering training, conducting counseling sessions, or involved in dispute resolution. However, that’s not to say that the technique is limited to a few professions only. Active listening is one of the most prized skills that can also help you in your career and personal life. The implications of active listening can even go beyond one individual, as it can be great for supporting two-way communication. Such as during a presentation session when a presenter is looking to engage an audience actively.

Main Components of Active Listening

Since active listening involves considering both the verbal and non-verbal cues, the main components of the technique require carefully considering the context, mood, remembering the message, and responding to it accordingly. The main components of active listening require an individual to actively comprehend, retain and respond to what is being said.

Comprehension is the first step towards understanding the speaker. This involves taking into account both verbal and non-verbal cues to understand the message. As a speaker, it´s important to constantly check for understanding and ask probing questions to the audience to reveal if the message is coming across correctly.

It is only natural that the listener will forget what is being said as the conversation or presentation moves forward. This is why the listener needs to retain information by note-taking or retaining the gist of the message. Creating a PowerPoint presentation that can later be distributed or even shared in advance can be helpful for the audience.

Responding is the process of carefully replying to what is being said. This validates the speaker in what would otherwise be a passive conversation. Encouraging further communication, especially if the response is empathetic, can also be an active part of clear comprehension from both parties.

3 As of Active Listening

The 3 As of active listening include attention, attitude, and adjustment. If you are looking to enhance your active listening skills, you need to focus on these three aspects. Understanding them will also enable you to help engage your audience.

1. Attention

When it comes to barriers that prevent someone from being an active listener, attention plays a major role. Many people complain about being unable to sit through a 2-minute YouTube video, let alone a lengthy PowerPoint presentation. Enhancing your attention and focusing on the message is the first A of actively listening to a conversation.

Using Attention as a Presenter: As a presenter, you can reduce distractions by asking your audience to avoid interruptions from email or notifications on their smartphones. Alternatively, you can make them actively engage in your presentation by allowing them to view your slides on their handheld devices using a shared link. PowerPoint has a built-in feature called Office Presentation Service that is accessible from the Slide Show tab. It enables online sharing of your presentation slides. There are also third-party services that can be used to engage your audience with polls, quizzes, and feedback options.

2. Attitude

Passive conversations often result in people missing a lot of non-verbal cues. On the contrary, active listening entails understanding these cues to understand better what is being discussed. Your attitude towards a conversation determines whether you can actively understand the conversation or have psychological deaf spots preventing you from being an active listener. People who might consider the conversation ‘a waste of their time’ would find it hard to make the conversation meaningful.

Shaping the Attitude of your Audience: As a presenter, you will have to shape the attitude of your audience by showing them why the presentation is worth their time. Please don’t wait too long before reaching out to your audience, or they might end up with the wrong attitude towards your presentation. You must start with an impact, grab audience attention and ensure you have something they might find valuable. For example, a pitch deck that drags on how great your company or idea is likely to fall on deaf ears. The potential investors need to know how the venture might be worth their money and the Return on Investment (ROI) for them.

3. Adjustment

When listening to someone, we don’t know what the other person would say. This means that we need to be flexible, considerate, and patient to listen to the speaker actively. Putting aside personal biases and judgment. Enabling the speaker to complete their side of the message without interrupting them due to a negative attitude.

Adjusting Your Presentation: Presenters can often end up with at least a part of the audience that will never be satisfied with their presentation. You might also come across people looking to intimidate you because of their habit of being trouble mongers. In such a case, you need to be flexible as a presenter to enable your audience to give you the same leverage. Enabling you to engage people actively when listening to you. You can learn more about how to do this from our previous article about the importance of understanding the 20/60/20 Rule to engage your audience.

Why Active Listening Matters in a Presentation

Active listening has immense importance for presenters. This not only includes listening and responding to your audience effectively but also ensuring that your audience actively listens to you.

To Avoid Death by PowerPoint

Death by PowerPoint is a common phenomenon where text-heavy slides and boring presentations lead to uninterested, passive listeners. Therefore, active listening is essential to avoid this conundrum and deliver a presentation that remains meaningful and encourages call-to-action.

To Retain Audience Attention

Carrying a conversation forward is a two-way street. You need to not only speak but ensure that your audience is heard and their opinion valued. Two-way active listening is important to ensure you can retain audience’s attention during a presentation.

Keeping the audience’s attention is important in any presentation, as losing their focus can lead to them tuning out or becoming distracted. This can be done by using engaging visuals and stories, keeping your speech concise and on-point, and avoiding unnecessary distractions.

To Prevent a Passive Audience Response

No presenter wants to deliver a pitch deck that results in zero investor interest or a presentation at the workplace that yields no positive response from colleagues. By being an active listener and engaging your audience, you can prevent a passive response and turn it into something positive and meaningful.

To Prevent and Placate Dissent

Some would say that it is easier to step on a cultural minefield to offend someone than to remain likable by most people. Be it the ‘woke culture’ or the need to cater for multiculturalism. You need a group of active listeners to ensure your message isn’t taken the wrong way due to a miscommunication or that you can placate dissent by adjusting your tone.

To Encourage Call-to-Action

Most presentations come with some form of call-to-action. Even if it is to encourage the audience to think about a subject and form their own views. To reap the fruits of your final act, you need to ensure that you and your audience have been actively engaged in a meaningful conversation. This can not only encourage call-to-action but also help you win the respect of your audience.

Active Listening Techniques for Presenters to Engage their Audience

Now that we have discussed active listening in detail, it’s time to discuss engaging your audience using active listening techniques.

Focus on Audience Comprehension

Contrary to what you might expect, even the most well-versed audience might be least interested in a meaningful presentation. Short attention spans, handheld devices, and lifestyle marred by digital technology overuse are some of the many reasons that retaining your audience’s attention is harder than it was for our predecessors. This is why you need to remain focused on the level of comprehension of your audience. You might need to keep your presentation interactive by using brain teasers, conducting polls, or opening up the floor for a few questions before moving on with the next part of your presentation. These methods can help you gauge if your audience is actively listening to you.

Make Your Words Memorable for Audience Retention

There are many techniques you can use to make your words or phrases memorable during a presentation. You can apply the rule of three, the 10/20/30 rule, PechaKucha approach, and other methods for this purpose.

Actively Engage and Respond to Questions

Many times, no one seems to be interested in asking a question until you encourage at least one individual to do so. This often results in people actively looking to ask questions, even unnecessary and unrelated ones. To encourage active listening during a Q&A session, you should be patient even with the questions that seem irrelevant and respond to them. If you think you have a ruckus, you can begin asking counter questions to encourage active listening and preventing trouble mongers and passive listeners from asking questions to follow the bandwagon.

Learn from Feedback and Assessment

Few presenters actually rely on feedback—even fewer look to dig deep into the available data to analyze it. Several tools can gather audience feedback, including web apps like Mentimeter or Participoll and clickers used to gather instant audience feedback. Learning and assessing feedback is essential to understand how to engage your audience and improve your own active listening skills.

Final Words

Active listening skills can help you in the workplace or personal life and enable a deeper understanding of the conversations you engage in daily. Miscommunication, conflict, and lack of empathy are often associated with a lack of active listening. When translated to presentations, the same can spell ruin for you as a presenter and your reputation. But before you can engage your audience, you need first to ensure you are willing to comprehend, retain and respond empathetically. Doing so will help you encourage a similar response from the other side.

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Listening Skills

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Use our high-quality Listening Skills slides, perfect to use in a Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides presentation, to explain the skill to effectively and accurately interpret the information delivered during communication. Furthermore, you can also communicate how good listening skills are important in different walks of life. This deck is best for creating professional presentations in a fraction of the time.

This deck is ideal for communication experts, career counselors, and team leaders to explain the barriers and significance of listening skills and ways to improve them. You can also discuss the key active listening skills, such as being attentive, asking open-ended questions, asking probing questions, requesting clarification, etc. Even without professional design knowledge, you can create eye-catching slideshows with this easy-to-edit and ready-made PPT.

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How to Practice Active Listening: 16 Examples & Techniques

Do you wonder if you could be better?

Good listeners can stay present and engaged with what is being said. This article will describe a listening technique called active listening. It’s useful in building therapeutic relationships and creating empathy.

You will learn the benefits of active listening and how it makes you a better communicator. And we will provide a list of the skills needed and techniques to learn exactly how to practice this. Finally, we’ll go over common pitfalls that keep us from being good listeners.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Positive Communication Exercises (PDF) for free . These science-based tools will help you and those you work with build better social skills and better connect with others.

This Article Contains:

What is active listening 3 principles, is it important in communication 4 benefits, active listening skills you can foster, 7 techniques to train your active listening skills, 3 counseling exercises & activities, 3 worksheets to practice active listening, questions to ask others: 3 examples, possible barriers & psychology tips to overcome them, 3 courses for training on effective communication, resources from positivepsychology.com, a take-home message.

Often, while we are listening, we are thinking of how we will respond. We might get distracted and miss some of what was said. We may not be paying much attention to the nonverbal communication cues of the speaker.

Active listening requires the listener to pay close attention to what is being communicated verbally and nonverbally. The listener is encouraged to interpret not only the content of what is being said, but also the emotions present and the body language.

In order to achieve this, the listener must be willing to devote energy to the task. They will need to have an excellent attention span and honed empathic abilities . Active listening has even been referred to as the “measurable dimension of empathy” (Olson & Iwasiw, 1987, p. 104).

There are three main components of successful active listening (Rogers & Farson, 1987):

• Listen for total meaning When someone is conveying a message, there are two meanings to gather: the content and the feeling or attitude underlying the message. An active listener is not only tuned in to the information conveyed, but also how it is conveyed and any nonverbal cues present.
• Respond to feelings After listening, when a response is appropriate, the listener should respond to the feeling of what was said. In this way, the speaker feels understood and empathy is established.
• Note all cues Nonverbal cues include tone of voice, facial or body expressions, and speed of speech. All of these taken together can convey a much deeper meaning than merely the content of what was said.

Carl Rogers’s take on active listening

Psychologists Carl Rogers and Richard Farson (1987) are responsible for defining the concept of active listening. They describe the skill as vitally important for effective communication. For Rogers, the ultimate goal of active listening was to foster positive change (Rogers & Farson, 1987). This change can occur in the context of a client/helper relationship or in the context of a group.

Rogers described three important principles in effective counseling: empathy, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard . Active listening is a tool that fosters and supports these principles.

Empathy is demonstrated in active listening by the listener reflecting the thoughts and feelings of the speaker. These thoughts and feelings are believed, supported, and respected. They are not dismissed or challenged.

Rogers stresses that in order to be successful in active listening, the listener must be authentic in their care. This reflects the principle of genuineness. Active listening can’t be faked.

Active listening requires true feelings of respect toward the individual speaking. The listener accepts and supports the speaker regardless of the content of their words. This illustrates the principle of unconditional positive regard.

It is also a skill that will benefit the listener in their life outside of work.

Whether at work or in casual conversation, active listening can provide a safe and empathetic space for a speaker, fostering feelings of trust.

Active listening in counseling

Active listening has been shown to be a vital skill in counseling. Empathy and empathic listening foster the therapeutic relationship , and the relationship between therapist and client has been shown to be the one of the most crucial and stable predictors of client success (Martin, Garske, & Davis, 2000).

Another benefit of learning active listening as a counselor is that it may increase self-efficacy . Levitt (2002) examined the impact of teaching active listening to counseling students and found that this skill created greater levels of confidence in the students and helped to reduce their anxiety as new counselors.

Active listening in the workplace

Kubota, Mishima, and Nagata (2004) examined the effects of an active listening training program on middle managers, finding positive results. In workplaces, a large portion of stress experienced by employees comes from interpersonal relationships.

The study showed that teaching managers who learned active listening skills were better able to support employees with mental health issues, providing a safe environment for them to share their difficulties without judgment. This led to calmer behaviors and more success (Kubota et al., 2004).

Can active listening skills even work through text conversations? Perhaps so. A unique and interesting study looked at the application of active listening to written communication online (Bauer & Figl, 2008). This case study was examining soft skills among computer science students and to see if active listening could come across in instant message conversations.

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Active listening requires a skill set that differs from typical everyday listening. Not only are you using the principles of empathy, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard, but you must also develop certain skillful ways of interacting.

It’s useful to begin with the body language of the listener (Robertson, 2005). How do you know when someone is listening to you? Maintaining eye contact and appropriate facial expressions is important to convey empathy and attention. As with all aspects of active listening, these indicators shouldn’t be forced or faked. They are simply a reflection of your genuine attentiveness.

It also helps to remove distractions from the environment. Depending on the context, you may desire to set up an environment that conveys peace and quiet. If you are in a public place, putting away distractions or moving to a quieter location can also be helpful.

Another skill is following (Robertson, 2005). To actively follow what the speaker is conveying, you allow space for them to speak, reducing or eliminating questions and giving space for silence .

In a non-active listening situation, there may be quick back and forth, many rapid questions, or people may talk over one another. With active listening, the speaker is given the time and space to speak as much as they want. And they are encouraged to continue.

A third skill is reflecting (Robertson, 2005). This is the skill of repeating what you heard the speaker say, but avoiding parroting it back verbatim. You are trying to capture the essence of what they said and reflect it back to them. You may also try to capture the feelings that are conveyed.

This is always done without expressing judgment and with the goal of understanding. It may even be useful to ask if you have it right before asking them to continue.

Each technique is listed with an example and an explanation of the use.

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The Positive Psychology Toolkit© is a groundbreaking practitioner resource containing over 500 science-based exercises , activities, interventions, questionnaires, and assessments created by experts using the latest positive psychology research.

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Use the below suggestions to help your clients improve their listening.

Practicing with a partner

For counselors in training, it is important to practice active listening with a partner. One partner shares a story of something emotional that happened, and the listener will practice the following techniques:

• Demonstrating listening through body language and nonverbal responses
• Reflecting back the content of what the partner shared
• Reflecting back the emotions that the partner shared

It’s important to check in with your partner after you’ve reflected to be sure that it’s accurate.

Mindful listening group practice

In many ways, active listening is a mindfulness practice. The listener is trying to stay focused on the present, with what is being shared. And they are working to accomplish this without judgment.

Here is an excellent activity to practice mindful listening in a group.

• Have the group sit in a circle.
• Offer an ice breaker question or prompt, such as something they are grateful for today.
• Rather than go around the circle, ask participants to share spontaneously when they feel ready.
• Invite them to notice if they are thinking about their answer, rather than listening.
• Ask them to be present with the person who is sharing.
• Challenge them to notice if they are uncomfortable with the silences.

Mindful listening alone

At any moment, you can drop in and practice mindful listening. Simply stop what you are doing, close your eyes, and try to see how many sounds you can hear around you and within you. Notice if there are judgments arising and try not to attach to them. Stay with the flow of sounds for as long as you can.

Listening Accurately

This worksheet offers a five-step process to improve your communication skills with another person. It would be a useful tool for working with couples or anyone who would like to hone their listening skills.

The five steps are:

• Step in their shoes.
• Fact-check your interpretation.
• Give your full attention.
• Clarify what they’ve said.
• Clarify what you’ve said.

500 Years Ago

This creative exercise helps both the listener and the speaker develop their empathy by imagining themselves in someone else’s place.

The listener is instructed to pretend that they have come from the past, 500 years ago. The speaker is trying to explain something to them and must use language that they can understand.

Using Small Rewards

In working to create a therapeutic alliance, nonverbal communication is key. This worksheet lists some “small rewards,” subtle but powerful nonverbal gestures that the therapist can use to let their client know that they hear them and are following along.

The worksheet invites the practitioner to listen to a five-minute segment of their session and see how often they were using these nonverbal cues. There is space to reflect on how better to incorporate them and consider why there may have been trouble.

How to actively listen to others – Scott Pierce

Active listening starts with refraining from questions. It’s important that the stage be set by allowing the speaker enough time and space to speak.

Start with reflection

Begin with reflections and try to capture the feeling of what was said. A reflection mirrors back what the person just said and tries to capture the meaning or the tone.

For example, let’s say a friend comes to you about a fight she had with her husband. She describes how the argument got heated, and they ended up sleeping separately. She is feeling worried about the state of their marriage.

A reflection restates what she said: “Things got really heated last night – so bad you didn’t even want to be in the same room.” Or “You’re feeling really worried because this fight felt so intense.”

The first example is a reflection of the content of what was shared. The second reflects the emotions. These types of reflections validate the speaker and help them feel heard and understood.

Asking questions

Only after reflection has been done will it be time to ask questions. The types of questions are important. The purpose of questions during active listening is to continue to move the individual toward self-discovery.

Open questions are vital for this step. Open questions can’t be answered with a simple yes or no. They invite introspection. Powerful questions stimulate curiosity in the listener and encourage conversation. They reveal underlying assumptions and invite creativity. They don’t change the subject or close down the conversation.

The point of an open-ended question as part of active listening is to learn more and continue to connect with the speaker. It is not to drive the conversation in a particular direction.

Here are three examples of closed questions vs open questions to ask, given the above situation. Remember, your friend just told you about a terrible fight that she had with her husband, and she is upset.

Closed question: “Did you make up?” Open question: “How are you feeling about the fight today?”

Closed question: “Did your kids hear you?” Open question: “How does it feel to share this with me? Have you thought about talking to anyone else?”

Closed question: “Are you going to leave him?” Open question: “What sorts of responses or solutions are you considering?”

You can see that the open questions invite conversation and show compassion , whereas the closed questions seem more like information gathering.

When practicing active listening, practitioners should also self-monitor for judgments that might come up while the person is speaking.

If these judgments aren’t monitored, they may cause criticizing, labeling, diagnosing, or even praising in a way that leads the speaker (Robertson, 2005).

The goal of active listening is to create a safe environment for the individual to speak freely. Any of these responses may lead to defensiveness, distrust, or shutting down.

Another barrier is suggesting solutions (Robertson, 2005). Although it may seem well meaning, the urge to suggest solutions often comes from a discomfort with what the speaker is saying. While it may seem supportive, it creates an imbalance of power in the dynamic. The speaker is left feeling unheard, and they are disempowered to create their own solutions.

A third barrier is avoiding what the person is sharing. This may manifest as diverting the conversation away, logically arguing, or even reassuring. Again, while reassurance seems comforting, it often shuts down or ends the conversation for the other person.

A wonderful example of the comparison of empathetic and other responses can be found in Brené Brown’s video below about sympathy versus empathy.

Active listening is a straightforward skill, and taking a short course is the perfect way to learn how to do it effectively. While it is possible to learn it simply by reading, it’s always helpful to see it in action and practice with other people.

If you are hoping to learn active listening to improve your workplace as a manager or a leader, these courses would be great for you.

Udemy offers thousands of short courses on everything from programming to cooking, and this course on active listening has over 10,000 downloads.

LinkedIn Learning offers courses for businesses, including one on effective listening . Your team can take a listening assessment, address challenges that they have, and learn effective listening behaviors.

A wonderful course for in-depth active listening training is offered by Voice of Health (VOH). VOH is an online peer-support community that offers free training for anyone interested.

17 Exercises To Develop Positive Communication

17 Positive Communication Exercises [PDFs] to help others develop communication skills for successful social interactions and positive, fulfilling relationships.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

Our Positive Psychology Toolkit© has excellent resources for learning how to listen more effectively and empathetically. One such tool is the exercise Listening Without Trying to Solve .

This exercise is done with a group. Individuals are paired off with one person as the listener and one as the storyteller. Each listener is given a card with instructions, half are told to listen without trying to solve and half are told to try to solve the problem as best as they can. Each pair is given five minutes for the storyteller to share a problem.

After sharing, the group returns together and discusses how it felt to be on the receiving end of a person who is working hard to solve the problem vs someone who is fully listening and empathizing. This is a powerful activity to show the effectiveness of active listening.

This checklist is a helpful tool for practicing active listening techniques. The checklist lists the techniques and then asks the listener to check back to see if they successfully used each one. There is space to write what worked well, what was difficult, and how to better incorporate unused techniques.

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others communicate better, this collection contains 17 validated positive communication tools for practitioners. Use them to help others improve their communication skills and form deeper and more positive relationships.

Active listening is a skill that anyone can learn. It’s a vital tool for therapists and counselors to connect empathically with their clients. But it’s also useful for better communication with family, friends, and coworkers.

Practicing active listening can deepen connections in your relationships and help to create stronger and more lasting bonds. Try some of these exercises to improve your communication skills today.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Positive Communication Exercises (PDF) for free .

• Bauer, C., & Figl, K. (2008). ‘Active listening’ in written online communication-a case study in a course on ‘soft skills’ for computer scientists. In 2008 38th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference (pp. F2C–1). IEEE.
• Kubota, S., Mishima, N., & Nagata, S. (2004). A study of the effects of active listening on listening attitudes of middle managers. Journal of Occupational Health , 46 (1), 60–67.
• Levitt, D. H. (2002). Active listening and counselor self-efficacy: Emphasis on one microskill in beginning counselor training. The Clinical Supervisor , 20 (2), 101–115.
• Martin, D. J., Garske, J. P., & Davis, M. K. (2000). Relation of the therapeutic alliance with outcome and other variables: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology , 68 (3), 438–450.
• Olson, J. K., & Iwasiw, C. L. (1987). Effects of a training model on active listening skills of post-RN students. Journal of Nursing Education , 26 (3), 104–107.
• Robertson, K. (2005). Active listening: More than just paying attention. Australian Family Physician , 34 (12), 1053–1055.
• Rogers, C. R., & Farson, R. E. (1987). Active listening. In R. G. Newman, M. A. Danziger, & M. Cohen (Eds.), Communicating in business today . DC Heath & Company.

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Don’t Just Listen, Be An Active Listener

Business communication relies on active listening.

Stephen R. Covey said: “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”

Everyone has an opinion and something to say, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The problem is when people spend too much time responding and not enough time listening.

Having active listening skills benefits everyone, and not just at work. Yes, being an active listener during a presentation is certainly going to improve your overall communication with the group; but, active listening can also go a long way to settle an argument with a stranger, understand your partner’s needs, and build solid relationships.

If you’re not sure what the difference is between listening and active listening, you’re not the only one. But once you do, you can implement changes in your behavior that will improve your relationships at work and at home.

Improve Your Business Communication

There’s a significant difference between hearing what someone’s saying and active listening—that is, processing their words and intent.

Active listening means allowing for a distraction-free environment where the person on the receiving end listens with all their senses so they can accept the intent of the conversation. By communicating this way, you can better formulate a response when it’s required.

Do you use active listening skills in your day-to-day interactions with people? You’ll see your business communication improve if you do and here’s why:

You can build appropriate responses through understanding the problem. An important aspect of active listening is turning off the response-building mechanism that many people trigger while someone is talking. Building a response before someone has finished communicating means that assumptions are made, and conclusions are drawn; you’re no longer truly engaged when you’re thinking of what you’re going to say. By listening and proactively caring about what the speaker is saying, noting body language and showing physical “I am paying attention” responses, you can build a better response to the situation.

Hearing example: Sam is undergoing his yearly performance review with his supervisor, Kim. There’s a problem with Sam regularly leaving work early, and Sam is explaining his side of the story. This is Kim’s eighth performance review of the day and she’s tired of hearing excuses for shortcomings in her employees’ performance, so she interrupts Sam and says, “Regardless, we need you to work on improving this area.” Sam is offended by Kim’s short response and leaves the conversation feeling on edge.

Listening example: Even though Kim has had many conversations with her employees today, she understands that each is an individual who deserves to be heard. Moreover, each employee should be given the chance to communicate their issues. She listens to Sam’s story and learns that he’s in a bind with his son’s daycare, and he’s been leaving early to rush home to take care of his child. Through interactive questions and after bouncing ideas back and forth, Kim offers Sam some flexibility with hours to accommodate his home life. Sam feels less stressed and confident that he can perform better now.

You can diffuse emotions by not disregarding them. No human is void of emotion, and although companies have historically expected their employees to “leave personal stuff at home,” the truth is it can be extremely difficult to do that. The result is poor job performance or even angry outbursts.

Emotions come in different shapes and sizes, and they’re often masked by behavior that doesn’t match. A person responding angrily may actually be in pain, for example. In order to improve communication at your business, it’s important to hear people out to understand the underlying issue. Without this information, you can’t respond appropriately.

Hearing example: Sam storms into Kim’s office to angrily complain about his colleague. Kim is distracted by an email she’s reading and only picks up on Sam’s angry tone and a few words here and there. Kim is irritated and interrupts Sam, telling him to calm down and that his colleague is a hard worker. This makes Sam angry and the conversation becomes angry and bitter.

Listening example: Kim looks away from her computer when Sam comes in, noting his anger. She hears how Sam’s colleague ruined his biggest sale of the year. Kim invites Sam to sit, and listens while he gets his words across. When he’s finished, she asks imploring questions. Kim learns that this isn’t the first time their personalities have clashed, and that Sam is really frustrated about not hitting sales targets and achieving his best. Knowing the problem, Kim decides to separate the two colleagues. Sam is grateful that he’s heard.

You can improve knowledge and understanding of every situation encountered. Active listening skills aren’t just to diffuse conflicts. By improving your active listening skills in any situation, you’ll expand your knowledge and understanding of situations and experiences around you.

Hearing example: Sam attends a development seminar with his entire office. Sitting in the back, many of his coworkers take this time to catch up on social media and whisper jokes to one another. Sam allows himself to get distracted by his phone and tunes in and out of what the speaker is saying. Afterwards, he considers the seminar a waste of time and goes home.

Listening example: Sam brings a notepad to the seminar and turns his phone off as the speaker steps up to the mic. He keeps his eye on the speaker, nods along with what’s said, and jots down notes and quotes that apply to him. Even though he wasn’t sure what to expect, Sam’s excited about what’s being shared and chats about it with friends after work. He applies what he’s learned at the seminar to his day-to-day life and feels positive.

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Master Active Listener Skills

Don’t worry if you feel your active listening skills have been lacking up to this point. If you’re now realizing this shortcoming may be responsible for problems in your business relationships, here’s what you can do today to make things better:

• Remove distractions: Get off your email, put your phone down, look away from the TV.
• Make eye contact: A lack of eye contact indicates you’re distracted or disinterested.
• Nod: Show that you’re digesting what’s being said.
• Wait to speak: Avoid interrupting and wait until the speaker finishes.
• Ask open-ended questions: If more details are needed, ask for them.
• Paraphrase: Repeat back to the speaker what you’ve heard to make sure you’ve understood.
• Recall a previous conversation: Show that you’ve actively listened in the past!

Sending this to friends– it’s so important, especially now that everything has gone virtual. I’m never fully sure if someone has heard what I said unless they verbally tell me so, since most the time no one turns their camera on. Maybe we should start leaving them on!

Wait to speak! Great tip I hate when people cut others off. It is so annoying!!

Listening skills are so important yet so many people listen with the intent to reply, not the intent to listen.

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7 types of listening that can change your life and work

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7 types of listening skills

Why is listening so important in life and at work?

Learn all types of listening to improve your life and your work

The importance of listening can’t be overstated. 

While   learning to communicate what you want to say is important , knowing how to listen using different types of listening skills is just as crucial for communication. 

Not only can it help you process information on different levels, but it can also help you build relationships with others.

That’s because listening goes deeper than just hearing.

It’s also much more than listening to the words someone else is saying. While this is one type of listening, it isn’t the only one that matters.

Let’s discuss the various types of listening and why listening is important for helping you advance your career and life.

• Informational listening
• Discriminative listening
• Biased listening
• Sympathetic listening
• Comprehensive listening
• Empathetic or therapeutic listening
• Critical listening

There are several types of listening you can develop both at home and at work.

Let’s explore seven of these types of listening, why they matter, and what they can look like:

1. Informational listening

When you want to learn something, you’ll use informational listening to understand and retain information. 

It usually takes a high level of concentration to perform this type of listening. That’s because you   need to be highly engaged   to understand a new concept.

You also need to apply critical thinking to what you are learning. This is so you can understand what you’re learning within the context of relevant information.

Some examples of informational listening include:

• Work training
• Self-paced learning at home or at work
• Listening to an educational ebook

When you know how to use informational listening, you empower yourself to become a better learner. By actively learning and improving yourself, you can become a more valuable asset in your place of work.

You can also feel more fulfilled when you pursue your passions and learn something new at home.

2. Discriminative listening

Discriminative listening is the first listening type that you’re born with.

Everyone innately has discriminative listening skills.

You use this type of listening before you even know how to understand words. Instead of relying on words, discriminative listening uses tone of voice, verbal cues, and other changes in sound.

Discriminative listening is how babies understand the intention of a phrase before they can understand words. If someone speaks to them in a happy and amused tone of voice, they’ll smile and laugh back.

They can also tell who is talking because they recognize different voices.

But discriminative listening isn’t just for babies.

If you’re listening to a conversation happening in a foreign language, you’ll likely automatically use your discriminative listening skills.

These will allow you to analyze tone and inflection to get an idea of what is going on.

You can also use nonverbal cues to listen and analyze. For instance, someone’s facial expressions, body language, and other mannerisms can tell you a lot about the meaning of someone’s message.

You shouldn't discount discriminative listening, even if you understand someone’s language.

This listening style is key to understanding the subtle cues in a conversation. Using this listening skill can help you read between the lines and hear what remains unspoken.

Here’s an example: 

Let’s say you ask one of your colleagues if they agree with a course of action.

They say yes, but you can tell from their body language, such as shifting uncomfortably, that something is wrong. 

Using your discriminative listening skills, you can pick up on this and ask them if they’re certain. You can also ask if something is going on that they’d like to discuss.

3. Biased listening 

Biased listening is also known as selective listening.

Someone who uses biased listening will only listen for information that they specifically want to hear.

This listening process can lead to a distortion of facts. That’s because the person listening isn’t fully in tune with what the speaker wishes to communicate.

Let’s say your superior is briefing you on a new project. You’re waiting to hear about the details of this assignment because you’ve been excited for a long time about it.

Because you’re so focused on the details of the assignment, you don’t fully hear everything your superior says. As a result, you   hear   your superior explain how you’ll be judged on this project, but you don’t fully   process   it.

Because you don’t have this information, you may not perform as well as you could if you had understood all the details.

4. Sympathetic listening

Sympathetic listening is driven by emotion.

Instead of focusing on the message spoken through words, the listener focuses on the feelings and emotions of the speaker.

This is done to process these feelings and emotions.

By using sympathetic listening, you can provide the support the speaker needs. You can understand   how they’re really feeling , not what they say they are feeling.

The speaker will feel heard and validated when you take the time to pay attention in this way.

Sympathetic listening is crucial if you want to build a deeper relationship with someone in your life.

For example, let’s say you run into a work colleague at the grocery store. They seem upset, so you decide to listen to what they have to say.

You also use sympathetic listening to feel how they are feeling. In doing this, you notice how frustrated they are about the lack of recognition they are getting at work.

As a result, you can offer your support and sympathize with their situation.

5. Comprehensive listening

Unlike discriminative listening, comprehensive listening requires language skills.

This type of listening is usually developed in early childhood.

People use comprehensive listening to understand what someone is saying using words.

Several other types of listening build on comprehensive listening. For example, you need to use comprehensive listening to use informational listening and learn something new.

At work and in your life, you’ll likely use a combination of comprehensive and discriminative listening to understand the messages people are giving you.

For example, let’s say your colleague briefs you on a project. You’ll need to use comprehensive listening to analyze the words and understand the message.

You’ll also use comprehensive listening   when you receive feedback .

6. Empathetic or therapeutic listening

Empathetic listening is useful to help you see from other people’s perspectives.

Using this type of listening, you can try to understand someone else’s point of view as they’re speaking. You can also try to imagine yourself in the other person’s shoes.

Instead of just focusing on their message, you can use empathetic listening to relate to someone else’s experiences as if they were your own.

This is different from sympathetic listening.

With sympathetic listening, you try to understand someone’s feelings to provide support. But you don’t necessarily try to imagine what it’d feel like to be in their position.

Let’s say your superior just announced that this week’s company outing is canceled due to budget cuts.

By using empathetic listening, you can tell how much pressure your superior is feeling. You can imagine yourself having to break the bad news. 

You know there’s pressure from higher-ups to respect the budget. You also know that there’s pressure from employees.

Instead of getting upset, you understand why your superior made this decision. That’s because you can imagine what it’s like to be in their shoes at this moment.

7. Critical listening 

If you need to analyze complex information, you’ll need to use critical listening.

Using critical thinking while listening goes deeper than comprehensive listening. Instead of taking the information at face value, you can use critical listening to evaluate what’s being said.

Critical listening is crucial when problem-solving at work. 

For example, you’d use this type of listening when trying to choose how to handle an unusual and complex client request.

You need to use this skill to analyze solutions offered by other people and decide if you agree or not. 

To do this, you don’t just need to hear their words. You also need to look at the bigger picture and compare everything you know.

Why is listening so important in life and at work? 

Listening is a key component of effective   communication skills .

Regardless of the type, listening is key to understanding what other people are really trying to say. Without listening, it's easy to get something wrong and make assumptions.

On the other hand, when you actively listen, you can fully communicate with someone else. 

Listening is the most important part of communication. That’s because it allows you to come up with a substantial and meaningful response. You can pick up on subtleties you wouldn’t have otherwise,   especially with body language .

If something isn’t clear, you can ask clarifying questions. This is something you might not have done without active listening.

At work, communication is an important soft skill. According to LinkedIn's 2019 Global Talent Trends report, 80% of companies say that soft skills are increasingly important to their success.

Listening is also important for   productive collaboration . 

According to the same LinkedIn report, collaboration is the third most important soft skill companies need. 

Imagine trying to collaborate if you can’t actively listen to your colleagues. Information gets lost, and misunderstandings occur.

The same can happen if everyone on the team uses different levels of listening. Some people will be more engaged than others. Not everyone will get the same understanding of the same conversation. 

You can avoid this if everyone actively listens to each other.

Plus, when you actively listen, your colleagues and your superiors will notice that you come up with meaningful responses. 

Listening is also crucial if you want to learn effectively.

Without attentive listening, it can be easy to miss small details that make a difference in your learning.

Active listening games

You can improve team communication with active listening games.

In one such game, you and your colleagues can split up into groups of two. The first person in each group is given a picture, while the other person is given a pen and paper. 

The second participant needs to ask questions in order to accurately draw the image the first participant is holding.

In another game, participants need to mime non-verbal cues to express their feelings about a topic. The other participants need to write down what they believe the other person feels.

Finally, you can practice active listening by having all participants listen to one person speak for three to five minutes. During this time, no other participants may speak. Afterwards, the other participants need to paraphrase what they think the other person said.

Learn all types of listening to improve your life and your work 

One type of listening isn’t better than the other. Instead, these seven types of listening work together to help you better understand the messages you receive.

By being a good listener, you can become a better communicator, avoid misunderstandings, and learn new information more easily.

If you’re struggling to become an active listener, you’re not alone. You can make it easier to work on those skills through coaching from experts at BetterUp.

Schedule a coaching demo today   to see how it can help you become a better listener.

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Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

Talk less, listen more: 6 reasons it pays to learn the art

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How to Become a Better Listener

• Robin Abrahams
• Boris Groysberg

Sharpen these seven skills.

Listening is a skill that’s vitally important, sadly undertaught, and physically and mentally taxing. In the aftermath of Covid-19, particularly with the shift to remote work and the red-hot job market, it’s never been more important — or more difficult — for leaders to be good listeners. This article offers nine tips to help leaders become more active listeners, and a breakdown of the subskills involved in listening and how you can improve in them.

It’s never been more important — or more difficult — for leaders to be good listeners. Job switching is rampant, and remote work means we don’t get the nonverbal cues we’d pick up from an in-person conversation. Employers who fail to listen and thoughtfully respond to their people’s concerns will see greater turnover. And given that the highest rates of turnover are among top performers who can take clients and projects with them, and the frontline employees responsible for the customer experience, the risk is clear.

• Robin Abrahams is a research associate at Harvard Business School.
• BG Boris Groysberg is a professor of business administration in the Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School and a faculty affiliate at the school’s Race, Gender & Equity Initiative. He is the coauthor, with Colleen Ammerman, of Glass Half-Broken: Shattering the Barriers That Still Hold Women Back at Work (Harvard Business Review Press, 2021). bgroysberg

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Listening Skills

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Interpersonal Skills:

• A - Z List of Interpersonal Skills
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• The Ladder of Inference
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• Types of Listening
• Active Listening
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Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process.

Listening is key to all effective communication. Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood. As a result, communication breaks down and the sender of the message can easily become frustrated or irritated.

If there is one communication skill you should aim to master, then listening is it.

Listening is so important that many top employers provide listening skills training for their employees. This is not surprising when you consider that good listening skills can lead to better customer satisfaction, greater productivity with fewer mistakes, and increased sharing of information that in turn can lead to more creative and innovative work.

Many successful leaders and entrepreneurs credit their success to effective listening skills. Richard Branson frequently quotes listening as one of the main factors behind the success of Virgin.

Effective listening is a skill that underpins all positive human relationships.

Spend some time thinking about and developing your listening skills – they are the building blocks of success.

See our pages: Employability Skills and Customer Service Skills for more examples of the importance of listening in the workplace.

Good listening skills also have benefits in our personal lives, including:

A greater number of friends and social networks, improved self-esteem and confidence, higher grades at school and in academic work, and even better health and general well-being.

Studies have shown that, whereas speaking raises blood pressure, attentive listening can bring it down.

Listening is Not the Same as Hearing

Hearing refers to the sounds that enter your ears. It is a physical process that, provided you do not have any hearing problems, happens automatically.

Listening, however, requires more than that: it requires focus and concentrated effort, both mental and sometimes physical as well.  

Listening means paying attention not only to the story, but how it is told, the use of language and voice, and how the other person uses his or her body. In other words, it means being aware of both verbal and non-verbal messages. Your ability to listen effectively depends on the degree to which you perceive and understand these messages.

Listening is not a passive process. In fact, the listener can, and should, be at least as engaged in the process as the speaker. The phrase ‘ active listening ’ is used to describe this process of being fully involved.

See our pages: Active Listening and Types of Listening for more information.

The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen.  Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention.

Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen

We Spend a lot of Time Listening

Adults spend an average of 70% of their time engaged in some sort of communication.

Of this, research shows that an average of 45% is spent listening compared to 30% speaking, 16% reading and 9% writing. (Adler, R. et al. 2001). That is, by any standards, a lot of time listening. It is worthwhile, therefore, taking a bit of extra time to ensure that you listen effectively.

Based on the research of: Adler, R., Rosenfeld, L. and Proctor, R. (2001) Interplay: the process of interpersonal communicating (8th edn), Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt .

The Purpose of Listening

There is no doubt that effective listening is an extremely important life skill. Why is listening so important?

Listening serves a number of possible purposes, and the purpose of listening will depend on the situation and the nature of the communication.

To specifically focus on the messages being communicated, avoiding distractions and preconceptions.

To gain a full and accurate understanding into the speakers point of view and ideas.

To critically assess what is being said. (See our page on Critical Thinking for more).

To observe the non-verbal signals accompanying what is being said to enhance understanding.

To show interest, concern and concentration.

To encourage the speaker to communicate fully, openly and honestly.

To develop an selflessness approach, putting the speaker first.

To arrive at a shared and agreed understanding and acceptance of both sides views.

Often our main concern while listening is to formulate ways to respond. This is not a function of listening. We should try to focus fully on what is being said and how it's being said in order to more fully understand the speaker.

Effective listening requires concentration and the use of your other senses - not just hearing the words spoken.

Listening is not the same as hearing and in order to listen effectively you need to use more than just your ears.

See our page: The Ten Principles of Listening .

Further Reading from Skills You Need

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Learn more about the key communication skills you need to be a more effective communicator.

Our eBooks are ideal for anyone who wants to learn about or develop their interpersonal skills and are full of easy-to-follow, practical information.

To improve the process of effective listening, it can be helpful to turn the problem on its head and look at barriers to effective listening, or ineffective listening.

For example, one common problem is that instead of listening closely to what someone is saying, we often get distracted after a sentence or two and instead start to think about what we are going to say in reply or think about unrelated things. This means that we do not fully listen to the rest of the speaker’s message.

This problem is attributed, in part, to the difference between average speech rate and average processing rate. Average speech rates are between 125 and 175 words a minute whereas we can process on average between 400 and 800 words a minute. It is a common habit for the listener to use the spare time while listening to daydream or think about other things, rather than focusing on what the speaker is saying.

Of course the clarity of what the speaker is saying can also affect how well we listen. Generally we find it easier to focus if the speaker is fluent in their speech, has a familiar accent, and speaks at an appropriate loudness for the situation. It is more difficult, for example, to focus on somebody who is speaking very fast and very quietly, especially if they are conveying complex information.

We may also get distracted by the speaker’s personal appearance or by what someone else is saying, which sounds more interesting.

These issues not only affect you, but you are likely to show your lack of attention in your body language.

Generally, we find it much harder to control our body language, and you are likely to show your distraction and/or lack of interest by lack of eye contact, or posture. The speaker will detect the problem, and probably stop talking at best. At worse, they may be very offended or upset.

Our page on Barriers to Effective Listening explains more about common listening problems, and our page Listening Misconceptions details some of the common myths and misconceptions about listening.

Finally, it is important not to jump to conclusions about what you see and hear. You should always seek clarification to ensure that your understanding is correct.

See our pages: Clarification and Reflection for more information.

How well do you listen? Take the: Interpersonal Skills Self-Assessment

More on listening, continue to: Mindful Listening | The 10 Principles of Listening Effective Listening Skills | Barriers to Effective Listening

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Communication is inherent to humans, but also one of the most difficult skills to master. Do you think you are an active listener? It's more than just "paying attention and showing the other person that you're listening". If you're an expert on this matter, and should you need a presentation to explain concepts better, trust these editable infographics. They come with varied number of elements, with different colors, and many of the designs are structured as diagrams or process infographics. Check them out!

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7 Types of Listening: How Listening Styles Help You Communicate

Written by MasterClass

Last updated: Jun 7, 2021 • 4 min read

Learning critical listening skills is an important part of building interpersonal relationships and processing important information. There are a few general listening styles that people use, depending on the situation they are in and whether they are operating on a more emotional or logical level. Understanding the different styles of listening can improve your interpersonal communication and help you quickly understand new information and concepts as they are communicated to you.

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Active Listening Skills, Examples and Exercises

September 20, 2017 - Sophie Thompson

In today’s world of high tech and high stress, communication is more important than ever, however we spend less and less time really listening to each other. Genuine, attentive listening has become rare.

Active listening skills can help build relationships, solve problems, ensure understanding and avoid conflict. By becoming a better listener, you’ll improve your workplace productivity, as well as your ability to  lead a team , persuade and negotiate.

Active listening definition

Active listening requires the listener to fully concentrate, understand, respond and then remember what is being said. You make a conscious effort to hear and understand the complete message being spoken, rather than just passively hearing the message of the speaker.

In this article, we’ll cover the following:

Why is listening important?

Benefits of active listening, what makes a good listener.

• Verbal and non-verbal signs of active listening

Four different listening styles

Examples of active listening, barriers to effective listening.

• Tips to becoming an effective listener
• Listening exercises

Listening is the most fundamental component of communication skills. Listening is not something that just happens, listening is an active process in which a conscious decision is made to listen to and understand the messages of the speaker.

Active listening is also about patience, listeners should not interrupt with questions or comments. Active listening involves giving the other person time to explore their thoughts and feelings, they should be given adequate time for that.

We spend a lot of time listening

Various studies stress the  importance of listening  as a communication skill. The studies on average say we spend 70-80% of our waking hours in some form of communication. Of that time, we spend about 9 percent writing, 16 percent reading, 30 percent speaking, and 45 percent listening.

Studies also confirm that most of us are poor and inefficient listeners. Most of us are not very good at listening, research suggests that we remember less than 50% of what we hear in a conversation.

There are many important benefits of active listening, these include:

• Builds deep trust  – As you cultivate the habit of listening sincerely, you  invite people to open up . They can sense that you will not be jumping to conclusions based on superficial details. They also realise that you care enough about them to listen attentively. While building trust takes time, it leads to great benefits such as lifelong friendships and a promise of help in difficult times.
• Broadens your perspective  – Your own perspective in life is not the complete truth or how everyone else sees it. The way you understand life from your beliefs and thinking is only one way to look at it – listening to other people’s perspectives allows you to look at life from different perspectives, some of which you may not have thought of before.
• Strengthens your patience  – The ability to be a good listener takes time and you need to develop it with regular efforts over time. But as you gradually get better and better at listening, an automatic benefit is that you develop patience. Patience to let the other person express his or her feelings and thoughts honestly while you don’t judge.
• Makes you approachable  – As you present yourself as a patient listener, people feel more naturally inclined to communicate with you. By being there for them, you give them the freedom to express their feelings.
• Increases competence and knowledge  – Great listening skills make an employee more competent and capable, regardless of their position. The more an individual can get information out of the meetings, the instructions, and reports provided to him, the more efficient and successful they will be at completing the task. Listening also builds knowledge and helps fulfil work requirements through progressive learning.
• Saves time and money  – Effective listening not only reduces risks of misunderstanding and mistakes that could be very damaging to the business, but it also saves time and money by avoiding starting a task or a project over again, just because the directives given were misunderstood. Employees do not waste precious time and a specific budget allocated to a project.
• Helps detect and solve problems  – As a leader, they should always be attentive to what employees have to say. In the workplace, they are the first ones to spot flaws and come up with suggestions for improvements. Listening to colleagues will help you understand what needs to be changed and worked on to retain talent and make improvements.

Good listeners actively endeavour to understand what others are really trying to say, regardless of how unclear the messages might be. Listening involves not only the effort to decode verbal messages, but also to interpret non-verbal cues such as facial expressions and physical posture.

Effective listeners make sure to let others know that they have been heard, and encourage them to share their thoughts and feelings fully.

You also need to show to the person speaking that you’re listening through non-verbal cues, such as maintaining eye contact, nodding your head and smiling, agreeing by saying ‘Yes’. By providing this feedback the person speaking will usually feel more at ease and communicates more easily, openly and honestly.

Listening vs. hearing

Hearing is an accidental and automatic brain response to sound that requires no effort. We are surrounded by sounds most of the time. For example, we are accustomed to the sounds of cars, construction workers and so on. We hear those sounds and, unless we have a reason to do otherwise, we  learn to ignore them .

Hearing is:

• Involuntary

Listening, on the other hand, is purposeful and focused rather than accidental. As a result, it requires motivation and effort. Listening, at its best, is active, focused, concentrated attention for the purpose of understanding the meanings expressed by a speaker.

Listening means paying attention not only to the story, but how it is told, the use of language and voice, and how the other person uses his or her body. In other words, it means being aware of both verbal and non-verbal messages. Your ability to listen effectively depends on the degree to which you perceive and understand these messages.

Listening is:

• Intentional

Practice Active Listening

Practice your listening skills with exercises and audio recordings, then answer quiz questions to evaluate your listening skills. Learn More

Verbal and non-verbal signs of active listening skills

It’s a horrible feeling talking to someone and realising that they are not really listening. There are some simple steps you can take to let the speaker know you are actively listening, such as asking relevant questions,  positive body language , nodding and maintaining eye contact.

Non-verbal signs of active listening

The people are listening are likely to display at least some of these signs. However, these signs may not be appropriate in all situations and  across all cultures .

• Smile  – small smiles can be used to show that the listener is paying attention to what is being said or as a way of agreeing or being happy about the messages being received. Combined with nods of the head, smiles can be powerful in affirming that messages are being listened to and understood.
• Eye Contact  – it is normal and usually encouraging for the listener to look at the speaker. Eye contact can however be intimidating, especially for more shy speakers – gauge how much eye contact is appropriate for any given situation. Combine eye contact with smiles and other non-verbal messages to encourage the speaker.
• Posture  – can tell a lot about the sender and receiver in interpersonal interactions. The attentive listener tends to lean slightly forward or sideways whilst sitting. Other signs of active listening may include a slight slant of the head or resting the head on one hand.
• Distraction  – the active listener will not be distracted and therefore will refrain from fidgeting, looking at a clock or watch, doodling, playing with their hair or picking their fingernails.

Verbal Signs of active listening

• Positive Reinforcement  – this can be a strong signal of attentiveness, however too much use can be annoying for the speaker. Occasional words and phrases, such as: ‘very good’, ‘yes’ or ‘indeed’ will indicate that you are paying attention.
• Remembering  – try to remember a few key points, such as the name of the speaker. It can help to reinforce that what is being said has been understood. Remembering details, ideas and concepts from previous conversations proves that attention was kept and is likely to encourage the speaker to continue.
• Questioning  – the listener can demonstrate that they have been paying attention by  asking relevant questions  and/or making statements that build or help to clarify what the speaker has said. By asking relevant questions the listener also helps to reinforce that they have an interest in what the speaker has been saying.
• Clarification  – this involves asking questions of the speaker to ensure that the correct message has been received. Clarification usually involves the use of open questions which enables the speaker to expand on certain points as necessary.

If listening were easy, and if all people went about it in the same way, the task for a public speaker would be much easier.

1. People oriented

The people-oriented listener is interested in the speaker. They listen to the message in order to learn how the speaker thinks and how they feel about their message. For instance, when people-oriented listeners listen to an interview with a famous musician, they are likely to be more curious about the musician as an individual than about music.

2. Action or task oriented

Action-oriented listeners are primarily interested in finding out what the speaker wants. Does the speaker want votes, donations, volunteers, or something else? It’s sometimes difficult for an action-oriented speaker to listen through the descriptions, evidence, and explanations with which a speaker builds his or her case.

For example, when you’re a passenger on an airplane, a flight attendant delivers a brief safety briefing. The flight attendant says only to buckle up so we can leave. An action-oriented listener finds buckling up a more compelling message than a message about the underlying reasons.

Content-oriented listeners are interested in the message itself, whether it makes sense, what it means, and whether it’s accurate. Content-oriented listeners want to listen to well-developed information with solid explanations.

People using a time-oriented listening style prefer a message that gets to the point quickly. Time-oriented listeners can become impatient with slow delivery or lengthy explanations. This kind of listener may be receptive for only a brief amount of time and may become rude or even hostile if the speaker expects a longer focus of attention.

To learn more about listening styles, read  The Importance of Listening – Listening Styles

Here are  some examples  of statements and questions used with active listening:

• Paraphrasing  – “So, you want us to build the new school in the style of the old one?”
• Brief verbal affirmation  – “I appreciate the time you’ve taken to speak to me”
• Asking open-ended questions  – “I understand you aren’t happy with your new car. What changes can we make to it?”
• Asking specific questions  – “How many employees did you take on last year?”
• Mentioning similar situations  – “I was in a similar situation after my previous company made me redundant.”
• Summarise questions  – A job candidate who summarises their understanding of an unclear question during an interview.
• Notice people speaking  – A meeting facilitator encouraging a quiet team member to share their views about a project.
• Summarise group conversations  – A manager summarizing what has been said at a meeting and checking with the others that it is correct.

Everyone has difficulty staying completely focused during a lengthy presentation or conversation, or even relatively brief messages. Some of the factors that interfere with good listening might exist beyond our control, but others are manageable. It’s helpful to be aware of these factors so that they interfere as little as possible with understanding the message. Here are some key barriers:

Noise is one of the biggest factors to interfere with listening; it can be defined as anything that interferes with your ability to attend to and understand a message. There are many kinds of noise, the four you are most likely to encounter in public speaking situations are: physical noise, psychological noise, physiological noise, and semantic noise.

2. Attention Span

A person can only maintain focused attention for a  finite length of time . Many people argued that modern audiences have lost the ability to sustain attention to a message. Whether or not these concerns are well founded, you have probably noticed that even when your attention is glued to something in which you are deeply interested, every now and then you pause to do something else, such as getting a drink.

3. Receiver Biases

Good listening involves keeping an open mind and withholding judgment until the speaker has completed the message. Conversely, biased listening is characterized by jumping to conclusions; the biased listener believes, “I don’t need to listen because I already know this.” Receiver biases can refer to two things: biases with reference to the speaker and preconceived ideas and opinions about the topic or message. Everyone has biases but good listeners hold them in check while listening.

4. Listening Apprehension

This is the fear that you might be unable to understand the message or process the information correctly or be able to adapt your thinking to include the new information coherently. In some situations, you might worry that the information presented will be too complex for you to understand fully.

Tips to become an effective listener and improve active listening skills

Tips to help you develop effective listening skills.

Face the speaker and maintain eye contact

Talking to someone while they scan the room, study a computer screen, or gaze out the window is like trying to hit a moving target. How much of the person’s divided attention you are actually getting? Fifty percent? Five percent?

In most Western cultures,  eye contact  is considered a basic ingredient of effective communication. When we talk, we look each other in the eye. Do your conversational partners the courtesy of turning to face them. Put aside papers, books, the phone and other distractions. Look at them, even if they don’t look at you. Shyness, uncertainty or other emotions, along with cultural taboos, can inhibit eye contact in some people under some circumstances.

Be attentive and relaxed

Give the speaker your undivided attention, and acknowledge the message. Recognise that  non-verbal communication is very powerful . In order to be attentive, you’ll:

• Maintain eye-contact with the speaker
• Direct yourself towards the speaker
• Pay attention to what’s being said
• Put aside distracting thoughts

Mentally screen out distractions, like background activity and noise. In addition, try not to focus on the speaker’s accent or speech mannerisms to the point where they become distractions. Finally, don’t be distracted by your own thoughts, feelings, or biases.

Keep an open mind

Listen without judging the other person or mentally criticizing the things she tells you. If what she says alarms you, go ahead and feel alarmed, but don’t say to yourself, “Well, that was a stupid move.” As soon as you indulge in judgmental bemusements, you’ve compromised your effectiveness as a listener.

Listen without jumping to conclusions and don’t interrupt to finish their sentences. Remember that the speaker is using language to represent the thoughts and feelings inside her brain. You don’t know what those thoughts and feelings are and the only way you’ll find out is by listening.

Don’t interrupt or cut them off

Children used to be taught that it’s rude to interrupt. I’m not sure that message is getting across anymore. Certainly the opposite is being modelled on the majority of talk shows and reality programs, where loud, aggressive, in-your-face behaviour is condoned, if not encouraged.

Interrupting sends a variety of messages:

• I’m more important than you are
• What I have to say is more interesting
• I don’t care what you think
• I don’t have time for your opinion

We all think and speak at different rates. If you are a quick thinker and an agile talker, the burden is on you to relax your pace for the slower, more thoughtful communicator—or for the guy who has trouble expressing himself.

Ask questions to clarify what they are saying

When you don’t understand something, of course you should ask the speaker to explain it to you. But rather than interrupt, wait until the speaker pauses. Then say something like, “Back up a second. I didn’t understand what you just said about…”

Ask questions and summarise to ensure understanding

When the person speaking has finished talking, ask questions relevant to what they are saying – try not to lead people in directions that have nothing to do with where they thought they were going. Sometimes we work our way back to the original topic, but very often we don’t.

You can also summarise the conversation to make sure you understand all the person is trying to say – this works well at networking events at the end of conversations, it also gives you an excuse to move onto another conversation.

Try to feel what the speaker is feeling

Empathy is the heart and soul of good listening. To  experience empathy , you have to put yourself in the other person’s place and allow yourself to feel what it is like to be her at that moment. This is not an easy thing to do. It takes energy and concentration. But it is a generous and helpful thing to do, and it facilitates communication like nothing else does.

Give the speaker regular feedback

Show that you understand where the speaker is coming from by reflecting the speaker’s feelings. If the speaker’s feelings are hidden or unclear, then occasionally paraphrase the content of the message. Or just nod and show your understanding through appropriate facial expressions and an occasional well-timed “uh huh.”

Pay attention to non-verbal cues

The majority of face-to-face communication is non-verbal. We get a great deal of information about each other without saying a word. When face to face with a person, you can detect enthusiasm, boredom, or irritation very quickly in the expression around the eyes, the set of the mouth, the slope of the shoulders. These are clues you can’t ignore. When listening, remember that words convey only a fraction of the message.

To read these listening tips in more detail, visit  10 Steps To Effective Listening

Listening skills exercises

Online exercises.

Practice your listening skills with interactive exercises.

• Active listening course with online practice

Summarise the conversation exercise

For a week, try concluding every conversation in which information is exchanged with a summary. In conversations that result in agreements about future activities, summarising will ensure accurate follow-through.

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Listening Practice Through Dictation with Transcripts

Listening Exercises A1 – Talks and presentations

• English Listening Exercises for A1

Beginning a presentation

1. Listen to three speakers begin their talk. Match each speaker with the expression (a-c) they use to welcome the audience.

George 2, Amy 3, Ben 1

2. Listen to announcements e-j. Match each announcement (e-j) to the correct time (1-6)

a   George ……………………..

b   Amy ……………………..

c   Ben ……………………..

a   new website

b   marketing strategy (for this year)

c   new ordering system

3. How does each speaker introduce their topic? Listen again and complete the expression each speaker uses.

a   George: The …………………….. of this talk is to …

b   Amy: In this …………………….. I want to …

c   Ben: Today I’m going to …………………….. to you about …

Answer & Transcript

a   purpose

b   presentation

(Amy = Chinese)

a    Hello everyone, and welcome. My name is George Anderson and the purpose of this talk is to explain our new website.

b    Hello. It’s great to see you all here today. I’m Amy Lee, and in this presentation I want to show you our marketing strategy for this year.

c    Good morning, everyone. Today I’m going to talk to you about the new ordering system we have here.

Giving an outline

Listen to Ben give an outline of his talk. Number each section of Ben’s talk in order (1-4).

……  show you how to order.

……  talk about the new computer program.

……  tell you how to contact us.

……  explain how to search for a product.

3  show you how to order.

1  talk about the new computer program.

4  tell you how to contact us.

2  explain how to search for a product.

To start with I’ll talk about the new computer program we are using. Then I’ll explain how to search for a product. After that I’ll show you how to order, and finally I’ll tell you how to contact us if you have a problem.

Main section

1. Ben is explaining the company’s new ordering system. Listen and write the signposts he uses to introduce each point (a-d).

a   ……………..       b   ……………..

c   ……………..        d   ……………..

a   First      b   Second      c   Third      d   lastly

2. Listen again and complete the notes below

Using the new ordering system

a    type in the customer’s …………….. and ……………..

b    choose the …………….. the customer wants to ……………..

c    select the …………….. the customer wants

d    enter your ……………..

a   name / address      b   product / order     

c  quantity          d   sales number

Ok, so now I’m going to show you how to order. Well, thanks to our new ordering system, it’s very easy. First, type in the customer’s name and address here … Second, choose the product the customer wants to order from this list … Third, select the quantity the customer wants … and lastly enter your sales number. There, that’s it!

1. Listen to Ben’s conclusion and write true (T) or false (F) next to the statements below.

a   They started developing the new system last year.  ……

b   The new system is ready now.  ……

c   With the new system, there will be no mistakes.  ……

d   The new system will be cheaper.  ……

b   False (when the system is ready, it will save …)

c   False (there won’t be so many mistakes)

d   True (it should save us money)

OK, so that’s how the new ordering system will work. We started developing it three years ago, and I hope you’ll agree there are many benefits to using a new computer system like this one. When the system is ready, it will save everybody a lot of time. The new system will also be more efficient, and there won’t be so many mistakes. It should save us money, too. So, in conclusion, this new ordering system will make all of our lives a lot easier. Thanks for coming. I hope you have found the talk useful.

2. Listen to Amy conclude her presentation. Complete the expressions she uses.

To summarize the main points

To …………………………

To thank the audience

Thank you ………………….. for ……………………

To sum up … Thank you very much for listening.

To sum up, sales this year are good, and they should continue to grow. Thank you very much for listening.

Questions and answers

1. Listen to Ben respond to some questions. Does he agree or disagree with each question? Tick your answers.

Agrees: b, d, f

Disagrees: a, c, e

2. Listen again and complete each expression Ben uses to agree or disagree.

a   Hmm. I’m ……………….. I agree.

b   That’s a very ………………..

c   I ……………….. that’s exactly right.

d   I couldn’t ……………….. more.

e   I think you may be ……………….. about that.

f   I think you’re ………………..

a  not sure      b   good point      c   don’t think

d  agree      e   wrong      f   right

a   Hmm. I’m not sure I agree.

b   That’s a very good point.

c   I don’t think that’s exactly right.

d   I couldn’t agree more.

e   I think you may be wrong about that.

f   I think you’re right.

Related Posts

• Practice Listening English Exercises for A1 – Travel
• Practice Listening English Exercises for A1 – Entertainment (2)
• Practice Listening English Exercises for A1 – Communication
• Practice Listening English Exercises for A1 – Clothes and shopping
• Practice Listening English Exercises for A1 – Fit and healthy
• Practice Listening English Exercises for A1 – Journeys (2)

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• English for Daily Conversations
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• English Grammar Exercises for B1
• English Grammar Exercises for B2
• English Listening Exercises for A2
• English Listening Exercises for B1
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• English Listening Exercises for Beginner
• English Listening Tests for A1
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• English Reading Exercises for A1
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This slide illustrates an exercise that the target audience can perform during their training session to improve listening skills.

Differences Between Effective And Ineffective Listening Training Ppt

Presenting Differences between Effective and Ineffective Listening. Our PowerPoint experts have included all the necessary templates, designs, icons, graphs, and other essential material. This deck is well crafted by extensive research. Slides consist of amazing visuals and appropriate content. These PPT slides can be instantly downloaded with just a click. Compatible with all screen types and monitors. Supports Google Slides. Premium Customer Support is available. Suitable for use by managers, employees, and organizations. These slides are easily customizable. You can edit the color, text, icon, and font size to suit your requirements.

This slide tabulates the difference between effective and ineffective listening on multiple comparison factors of listener behavior, the focus of attention, acceptance, empathy, and probing.

Introduction Importance And Activities Of Active Listening With Activities Training Ppt

Presenting Introduction, Importance and Activities of Active Listening with activities in Business Communication. Our PowerPoint experts have included all the necessary templates, designs, icons, graphs, and other essential material. This deck is well crafted by extensive research. Slides consist of amazing visuals and appropriate content. These PPT slides can be instantly downloaded with just a click. Compatible with all screen types and monitors. Supports Google Slides. Premium Customer Support is available. Suitable for use by managers, employees, and organizations. These slides are easily customizable. You can edit the color, text, icon, and font size to suit your requirements.

This set of slides covers 3As of active listening attitude, attention, and adjustment. It also includes the difference between active and passive listening along with an activity to conduct in a business communication session. Further, it showcases the significant advantages of active listening in business organizations, such as building trust, resolving conflict, boosting productivity, solving problems, increasing knowledge, and limiting information loss.

Listening In Business Communication Training Ppt

Presenting Listening in Business Communication. Our PowerPoint experts have included all the necessary templates, designs, icons, graphs, and other essential material. This deck is well crafted by extensive research. Slides consist of amazing visuals and appropriate content. These PPT slides can be instantly downloaded with just a click. Compatible with all screen types and monitors. Supports Google Slides. Premium Customer Support is available. Suitable for use by managers, employees, and organizations. These slides are easily customizable. You can edit the color, text, icon, and font size to suit your requirements.

This slide provides information regarding the definition of listening in business communication.

Critical Listening Skills Include In Powerpoint And Google Slides Cpb

Presenting our Critical Listening Skills Include In Powerpoint And Google Slides Cpb PowerPoint template design. This PowerPoint slide showcases four stages. It is useful to share insightful information on Critical Listening Skills Include. This PPT slide can be easily accessed in standard screen and widescreen aspect ratios. It is also available in various formats like PDF, PNG, and JPG. Not only this, the PowerPoint slideshow is completely editable and you can effortlessly modify the font size, font type, and shapes according to your wish. Our PPT layout is compatible with Google Slides as well, so download and edit it as per your knowledge.

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• Critical Listening Skills Include

Listen The Most Critical Skill In Negotiation Training Ppt

Presenting Listen The Most Critical Skill in Negotiation. This PPT presentation is thoroughly researched by the experts, and every slide consists of appropriate content. All slides are customizable. You can add or delete the content as per your need. Download this professionally designed business presentation, add your content, and present it with confidence.

This slide explains the most critical skill of negotiation that is Listen. It explains the relevance of active listening and then coming to an agreement in the negotiation process.

• Negotiation Strategies
• Sales Negotiation
• Vendor Negotiation
• Salary Negotiation