

- SELECTIVE LISTENING INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION HOW TO
- SELECTIVE LISTENING INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION PLUS
In sales, the marketing rep wants to influence a customer from a point of no interest to a commitment to buy.
SELECTIVE LISTENING INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION HOW TO
At the same time, they don’t dismiss their emotional response to the speaker, their “feel” for the situation, or their hunch of what might happen next.Ī framework telling them how to influence a person’s thinking from Point A to Point B also guides these professionals.

Training has taught all of them not to listen at face value, and to use the time lag between their hearing and subsequent speaking to properly evaluate what is being said. Psychiatrists listen for unconscious motivations. Lawyers listen for their opponent’s faulty logic. Salespeople listen for customer concerns. Why we’re listening determines the type of information we listen for. Listening can be approached the same way. If we get lost, we need only refer back to the map to find our way. We need the map to drive efficiently and with less chance of an accident. When driving to someplace new, we often stop at a gas station for a map to navigate in unfamiliar territory. It accepts that listening is not an end in itself but a part of a chain of processes that ends in a decision, strategy or change in behavior or viewpoint. “Navigational Listening.” This is the style of listening that makes us better executives. In business, executives need to focus on the interpersonal influencing process. What she hears in that talk could easily affect her performance during the year as well as her relationships with co-workers. A manager might listen to her president’s annual report to determine whether her division will be financed to grow further. Employees, for instance, are constantly alert for clues as to how their performance is being rated, reading their own interpretations into messages. We interpret the messages we hear by our position in the organization or concerns as a member of the organization. Unfortunately, many adults hear only what they want to hear. The more experiences we have, the more we should be able to interpret what we hear from the speaker’s perspective. Interpretations are influenced by our experiences. This explains why executives, managers and staff sometimes differ dramatically in what they think they hear. Sometimes, we think we are hearing facts when actually the words we’re hearing are our own interpretations of situations or figures. We end up preoccupied with our own internalizations. Inwardly, however, our mind is elsewhere or we are making judgments about earlier comments. Like many people, some of us think that being a good listener is merely sitting silently while others talk. However, as we gain important new information about the effects of this uniquely human process called listening on the effectiveness of an organization, we recognize that ineffective listening is much more than just a hearing problem.Ĭonsider some of these common types of listening behavior in business: Traditionally, ineffective listening has been viewed as a hearing problem. While our mind has the time to listen, evidence suggests that we don’t always use that time well.

Still another question: What guided your listening? Individuals who hear the same speech often walk away with different impressions of what they heard. Did you listen to facts or to specific words? Did you paraphrase these words in your mind? Did the situation lead to new impressions, feelings and ideas? Were you affected by how the speaker stood, the volume of her voice or her appearance? Did the speaker’s emotional tone bother you? Were you evaluating his effectiveness as a communicator? Or were you so preoccupied that you didn’t listen at all, or only hear a little of what was said? It may have been a speech delivered by an executive, a discussion with a subordinate or an explanation from a peer. Try to recall a recent situation when you were a listener.
SELECTIVE LISTENING INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION PLUS
These two forces-history plus emotional state-make up our listening capability at any point in the day. Being tired, angry, elated or stressful predisposes us to selective listening. We are also subject to the effects of our physical and emotional states. As objective as we would like to think we are when we listen, we actually are not. Our listening is influenced by events, relationships and experiences-all adding to what we hear and its meaning. The listening adult’s mind is never blank or completely impartial. Done well, it will enable you to collect information for timely and effective decision-making. It’s essential to move ideas from one person to another. For a manager, listening is perhaps the most important component of communication.
