THE LISTENING TOOL

 

There are several trainings and education on speaking fluently and how to deliver aptly to create the intended impression on any group of people. However, little is done to the other vital aspect of communication – listening - It is actually the superior factor to the making of effective communication. This is to say, a very good listener is a better communicator than a very good orator. The more you develop your listening skills, the more you increase your understanding of anything and anyone. The speech of excellent communicators is often successful because they are influenced by what they hear.

Many of the diverse challenges that bedevil business enterprises is as a result of poor listening skills. And for some of these issues, huge amounts of scarce resources are spent on finding solutions from very expensive source. Effective listening yields understanding which forms the fundamentals to solving problems at various levels.

We are about to share a few notes every business leader must imbibe and practice in order to, first, minimize communication challenges and to be effective at conflict resolution at every level within and without the organization. Key among these is the identification and understanding of issues affecting employee performance and productivity. Your firm will be better armed if it learns to approach the challenge of employees by engaging the following guiding steps. These are golden guides geared towards enhancing productivity at the workplace.

LISTENING TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE

§  Create an enabling environment

The very first step to ascertain what the difficulties and struggles with people, especially in the workspace, is to have the individual or persons come into a space where they are most comfortable and able to speak freely. It may sometimes mean you are alone with the person(s) in order to remove the tension they may have when other people are present. Secondly, it may be necessary to engage the people after work hours when the work pressures are over at least for the day. Next, the interaction will be very fluid when it is had in a very calm environment – be it a restaurant or a very natural environment. At such times and venues, the people are very calm and have very clear thoughts to speak and express themselves freely.

§  Be attentive

Attentiveness to another person when communicating is very critical. It may so happen that we are physically present but have other things busily running through our minds so, we often catch ourselves mentally absent and have to force our way back into the conversation. It is utterly important to prepare ourselves ahead of engaging employees or any other person for that matter when we really want to appreciate a difficulty and to resolve it. It may be required that we file our thoughts of the day’s happenings and putting them on hold before engaging in listening.   

Do not interrupt except to request clarification

The mind works in such a manner that it prefers starting and finishing the delivery of a body of thought before moving on to another thing. So, stopping an individual who is talking abruptly to put your thoughts across, causes a lot of problems. Mind you, the engagement is one that on its own, has a tendency to get the speaker a bit on edge - dropping in intermittently to speak complicates the situation. So, any attempt to interrupt should be to request for clarification on what has just been said and this should be very minimal else, you fail to get the best of the time. 

§  Be aware of non-verbal cues

Communication is multifaceted – pitch, tone and language form a part of the tools for communication as well as the actions and movement of the members of the body. A lot can be said without audible words and so a lot of focus must be given to the gestures of the speaker – movement of hands, head, sitting or standing postures, frequency of blinks and the positioning of the eyes among others are some of the indicators of communication. These are used to read the mood and emotions of the person as you align them with the choice of words they use to convey their message.

§  Listen as though a good friend is telling you something you are interested in

When a speaker notices by your gestures and language that you not interested in what they are saying, you put them off and would not get the best of the time with them. And it may influence subsequent conversations between the parties involved. Signs of interest in what is said includes a very relaxed face, nods and the body posture to say ‘let it flow’ even when some shocking information are released. This is part of the mental preparation for such interactions. Signs of interest in what a person has to say creates trust. 

Do not impose your own solution.

After patiently receiving the load of information passed to you, a quick reaction or response in the form of instructing what the individual should do sets the entire procedure to fail. After you have appreciated the things you need to ascertain the situation, it is expedient to guide the individual to propose steps they are willing and able to take in order to solve the problem at hand. Here, you play the role of a counsellor by not pushing your thoughts down their throat but guiding them through viable corrective steps.

It is worthy of mention that every individual in trouble feels respected, appreciated and loved when they are given a fair hearing. They may not be given a second opportunity at what they were about but they will leave with their personality intact and unbroken. An employee may not qualify any longer to fit their role after such a procedure but I tell you, they will walk out still with the goodwill of the firm on their lips and this alone has great returns for the organization. And in other cases, the effective listening will help bring the employee out of the place of error and bad performance, because understanding is attained and this can go far to fix similar challenges with other employees.

 

 

PAUL ANANG AMASAH

11TH NOVEMBER, 2024

THE COLLEGE BUSINESS CONSULT

thecollegebc@gmail.com