ACTIVE LISTENING

"I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I really meant."




1. You think about 4 times faster than a person usually talks. Do you use this excess time to think about other things while you are keeping track of the conversation?

2. Do you listen primarily for facts, rather than ideas, when someone is speaking?

3. Do you avoid listening to things you feel will be too difficult to understand?

4. Can you tell from a person's appearance and delivery that he/she won't have anything worthwhile to say?

5. When somebody is talking to you, do you try to make him/her think you are paying attention when you are not?

6. Do certain words or phrases prejudice you so that you cannot listen objectively?

7. Do you turn your thought to other subjects when you believe a speaker will have nothing particulary interesting to say?

8. When you are listening to some one, are you easily distracted by outside sights and sounds?

9. When you are puzzled or annoyed by what someone says, do you try to get the question straightened out immediately, eithe in your own mind or by interrupting the speaker?

10. Do you catch yourself concentrating in a conversation more on what you are going to say when it's your turn to speak than on what the speaker is saying?

Hmmmm!!! Does this mean that all of us are guilty of bad listening habits at one time or another? YES!!! Maybe the following information will give you some ideas on how to be a more effective listener. Good luck!!!

The average person spends about 70% of each day engaged in some type of communication. More specificately, we spend 54.93% speaking, 13.27% reading and only 8.4% writing each day. Listening is an art. To be performed well, we must not confuse LISTENING with HEARING. Many of us who consider ourselves good listeners might only be good hearers. HEARING IS THE PHYSIOLOGICAL PROCESS of recognizing sound waves as they enter passively into the ear and is pretty much unavoidable. LISTENING, on the other hand, is an ACTIVE process demanding as much, if not more, MENTAL EFFORT and concentration than speaking.

Hearing is with our ears, listening is with our minds. If you only hear people, you are probably missing valuable information, suggestion, and ideas.

We have found that repeating what we THINK the other person said has eliminated many misconceptions. There is a definite difference between hearing and listening.

Hi!
I can't honestly compeletly reply as i quit listening about half way down...
i did copy n paste so i can look back on it, as i KNOW i'm guilty of not listening and I KNOW so many people who are...my goodness how do we all end up doing this? WOW....good stuff!
DreamnDraggin'Fly

I said YES...to all of the above...I need to be a better listener because it does effect my life alot....

I found that I have trouble listening a lot. So often I repeat things the way I have heard them, just to make sure I havent left out something meaningful that the person was trying to tell me.

I have done this for a while and seems to help me and also the person I am talking to.

6. Do certain words or phrases prejudice you so that you cannot listen objectively? >>> This is like a bigger for me and I havent really found a way to deal with this properly.

I often to seem to drift in and out of conversations or it just seems like a lot of words passing by with no meaning, like I am not there at all. Some people seem to pick up on that and are very patient with all and understand how that can happen and others seem to get impatient that I wasnt listening. I dont mean not to listen, I just like zone out and I dont know I am doing it, until I zap out of it.

Isabeau