The power of active listening skills
Have you ever been in a conversation, only to realise later that you missed something important? This can happen when you’re just waiting for your turn to speak, instead of listening to understand. You can avoid these situations by developing active listening skills.
Active listening helps you become not only a better listener, but more efficient at your job. It enables you to recognise the meaning and intent behind someone’s words. You’ll know when to ask questions to clarify something you’re unsure about and you’ll help the person feel heard.
Both your personal and your professional life can benefit from active listening skills. Being an active listener can improve your interactions in the workplace, so you get along better with your co-workers and the days flow more easily.
Active listening skills can also give you confidence when applying for jobs, by helping you prepare for interviews. Here’s what this guide covers:
Why is active listening important?
Active listening means really paying attention when you talk with someone, to understand them better. It’s not about just hearing what they say and responding. It’s about hearing them and getting a feel for their motivations and emotions.
One of the biggest benefits of active listening is that it helps you understand others better. This can help you resolve conflicts, work more effectively as part of a team, and improve your productivity. Developing this skill can also prepare you for jobs where collaboration is key. People aren’t born with perfect communication skills. But you can improve your active listening with a little effort, practice, and patience.
It’s the foundation for good communication
A workplace can include diverse people, each with their own communication style that aligns with their personality and culture. At the same time, people listen to others through a set of filters shaped by their personal experiences. For example, a teammate might think it’s impolite to ask questions in a conversation, while someone else might think it’s fine.
There’s a psychological reason why active listening makes the communication process better. Being an active listener builds deeper and stronger relationships by helping you feel closer to others. Active listening can also encourage people to reveal important details they may not have shared.
Benefits of active listening in professional settings
Integrating active listening techniques into your conversations can improve your communication with others across the board. Here are some benefits you might see at work when you use your listening skills.
Improve workplace efficiency
Miscommunications can waste a considerable amount of time. When you use active listening, you can better understand how you should be approaching a task, reducing confusion and back-and-forth messages.
Encourage teamwork
When people feel heard, they’re more likely to speak up and share ideas. They’re also more likely to help each other. This can help build trust and make teamwork more effective.
Prepare for leadership
Employees often come to leaders for advice or empathy about workplace concerns. By developing active listening skills, you can demonstrate that you’re a leader who cares about your team. This could make you an attractive option for a promotion or new role. Faciliators also have great active listening skills.
Enhance decision-making
A team member may have valuable information on why a project is failing but is unaware they have this knowledge. Active listening can uncover valuable insights from those team members, allowing you to make well-rounded and informed decisions.
How to improve your active listening skills
Here are some practical active listening techniques to help you improve your skills.
1. Pay full attention
Even though you may feel that you can multi-task well, distractions like your phone can impact your ability to perform other tasks, or even hear someone who is speaking to you. This active listening technique can also help you retain more of what is being said to you, so you can take appropriate action.
2. Use body language
You can show someone that you’re paying attention to their words with body language. This active listening technique involves putting down your tools, facing the person speaking and making appropriate eye contact. Try to keep a neutral expression, and nod your head to show that you understand and want them to go on.
3. Give feedback
Follow-up questions and statements can show that you’ve listened to someone and processed what they said. You can demonstrate this active listening skill by replying with statements summarising the person’s point, to confirm you understand their meaning. You can also ask questions if anything’s unclear.
4. Defer judgement
Avoid passing judgment or interrupting. Doing so can hamper your ability to fully understand what they’re trying to tell you. Instead, encourage them to keep talking, so you can hear the full story and offer solutions if they’re looking for advice.
5. Respond appropriately
A person may share something with you because they want advice, or they might want you to act on their information. An example of this would be someone telling you that they feel overworked. Perhaps a colleague abruptly left the business, leaving them with extra work. Actively listening could prompt you to ask if they’ve told their manager. It’s always a good idea to ask if they want you to take action or if they just need someone to talk to.
Other ways to improve your active listening skills
Like many other interpersonal skills, you can practise active listening techniques to improve your abilities.
Self-assessment
Assess your current active listening techniques by answering yes or no to the following statements:
- When someone speaks to me, I use the time to plan how I might respond to them.
- When I need to have an important conversation with someone, I talk to them when I next see them, even if they’re on a lunch break or on their way to a meeting.
- I focus on verbal responses. I usually don’t notice body language, such as eye contact, smiling, nodding, or other gestures.
- I find that I interrupt others to get my point across before they finish speaking, in case I forget what I want to say.
- When someone’s response surprises me, I don’t consider the reason behind it.
- I evaluate something a person says or does based on how I would act in a similar situation.
- If I’m not sure what someone means, I send a message later to ask for clarification.
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, consider spending more time practising active listening.
Active listening exercises
The next time you’re preparing to have a conversation, consider practising your active listening skills by integrating the following techniques into your responses:
Use open versus closed-ended questions
When a question pops into your mind, note it and determine if it needs an open- or closed-ended response. An open-ended response is useful when gathering information about something. A closed-ended question helps you get a factual answer, such as a number or figure.
For example, you could use a closed-ended question to get a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response to a direct question. A scenario where you might use this includes getting confirmation of the date that a customer received their order.
An example of an open-ended question includes feedback from a team member. Instead of asking them if they found your contributions helpful, you could ask them to provide details. A scenario you can apply this to is hosting a meeting and asking attendees if there's anything to add to the agenda, such as a progress update.
Integrate prompts
You can add certain phrases and words to your conversations, to help clarify important details. The next time you speak to someone, try using the following phrases to gather the key points of the conversation:
- Can you explain to me what you mean by ...?
- To ensure we’re working towards the same goal, you’re saying ...?
- Are you happy for me to ...?
- Do you have any concerns about ...?
- Is there anything else I should consider before we ...?
Regular practise
Remember that active listening skills are like muscles. The more you use them, the stronger they get, and the less effort you’ll need to put into exercising them.
How to demonstrate active listening skills during an interview
When hiring for a role, interviewers usually look at your hard and soft skills. Hard skills include technical skills like qualifications, while soft skills are your interpersonal abilities. Here are a few ways to highlight active listening soft skills in your next interview.
Be deliberate in your responses
Active listening requires you to take time when replying to questions. This can help you steady yourself and formulate an answer that shows you understand the question and are a good listener.
Take note of your body language
Your body language can convey more than words. You can show you’re an attentive listener by making eye contact, using positive facial expressions and good posture, leaning in, and keeping your arms uncrossed.
Ask insightful questions
Questions can show you’ve done your research and built on the information. For example, you could mention the company’s record of achievement and how you can contribute to it.
Paraphrase and summarise
Interviews that are online or by phone can prevent you from assessing someone’s body language, which is instrumental to active listening. You can stay focused by summarising or paraphrasing the speaker’s words.
Avoid interruption
Pay careful attention to the interviewer’s tone, and don’t interrupt them. Avoid the temptation to multitask. After the interview, you may realise that you didn’t ask something or you want more information. You can follow up with an email to ask questions. This also confirms your interest in the role.
When you improve your active listening skills, you’ll benefit from more effective communication at home, socially, and at work. This toolkit can improve your attention to body language, your empathy, and your ability to reflect and find deeper meaning in what people are saying. It can transform your interactions with others in unexpected ways. Developing your skills will not only help you become a better listener, but also enrich your social skills, and ultimately boost your workplace success.
FAQs
1. How does active listening differ from just listening?
Simply listening to someone speak differs from active listening, as listening is a passive process involving a one-way flow of communication. Active listening requires people participating in a two-way conversation, where both parties seek to understand each other.
2. Can active listening be learned or is it an innate skill?
Active listening isn’t an innate skill that people are born with, meaning you can improve with practice. While listening to someone speak may not require a conscious effort, listening to comprehend them does. By consciously and deliberately using active listening in your communications, you can develop this skill.
3. What are some common challenges in practising active listening and how to overcome them?
A common challenge in practicing active listening is rushing through your conversations due to a lack of time. To understand someone when speaking to them, you may need to ask follow-up questions and take time to form responses. You can overcome this challenge by setting aside dedicated time to have important conversations with people.
4. How can active listening be maintained in virtual or remote communication settings?
You can maintain active listening in virtual settings by having conversations in a quiet, distraction-free environment. Test your communication equipment before your call, to ensure they work. You can also recap and share key points and statements after each session to ensure everyone is on the same page.
5. Are there any specific tools or apps that can aid in improving active listening skills?
Here are some applications and tools you can use to improve your active listening skills:
- Tandem is an app that pairs you with a native speaker of another language, who wants to improve their English conversation skills. Conversing with them can help you develop your ability to listen to and understand someone who communicates differently to you.
- Speeko is an AI tool that can record your communications and have experts give you feedback on how you can improve your speech patterns. This can alert you to aspects of communication that can hinder your active listening and how others, in turn, understand you.
- Psychology of Body Language is an app you can download that guides you through a range of videos and test questions concerning body language. You can use this app to assess your understanding of gestures, contextual situations, and perception.
