HANDOUT:

COURSE:
INSTRUCTOR:

#7
Communication Skills
Kamil Siddiqi

Listening as a Communication Tool

The importance of listening cannot be overstated because it is crucial to the success of
organizations and individuals alike. A study of communication preferences by first-line
managers and supervisors has found that the predominantly used communication skills
are listening and speaking, and that listening is perceived as the most important
communication skill.
Based on a survey that has covered a million workers, it appears that companies
that encourage upward communication and listen to their employees perform better than
other companies. Research findings testify to the relationship between listening and
organizational effectiveness.
Between 1987 and 1993 small and midsize companies in the US created 6.5
million new jobs, while companies with more than 500 employees lost nearly 4 million
jobs. Large organizations were often accused of becoming complacent and assuming
continued success while small companies were aggressively pursuing customers and
listening to what they say.
Tom Peters and Nancy Austin authors of The Passion for Excellence
recognized the importance of listening when they stated that corporate excellence was
built . . . on a bedrock of listening. . . .
Besides being critical to organizational effectiveness, listening is also a
determinant of individual effectiveness. When evaluating an individuals competence as a
communicator, that persons listening ability is a major consideration. Without a
demonstrated ability to listen well, a person is unlikely to be considered an excellent
communicator. While investigating the link between communication and health,
researchers had observed that a dogs blood pressure rises when the dog barks, and drops
when the dog is quiet. Researchers later learned that the same holds true for humans, in
that our blood pressure rises when we talk and rapidly drops when we listen. In short,
listening is good for us.
Employers are becoming increasingly aware that listening relates to almost all
forms of business communication. It is a necessary skill, for example, in gathering
information for business report, in working in a small group, interviewing as a
management tool or to get a job, and in communicating effectively across cultures.

The average listener who hears a 10-minute presentation will HEAR, UNDERSTAND,
and RETAIN only half of what was said. Forty-eight hours later that portion drops another
50 percent. Put another way: we retain about 25 percent of what we hear.
Part of the reason for poor listening ability is the educational system, which
emphasizes the speaker at the expense of the listener. The system focuses major attention
on READING, WRITING, and SPEAKING SKILLS not listening skills. Yet one study shows that
45 percent of total working hours are spent listening, 30 percent speaking, 16 percent
reading, and 9 percent writing.
Findings indicate that those who listen well get higher grades. Furthermore,
because listening and reading have similar correlations with grade point average (GPA), it
is reasonable to conclude that scholastic excellence depends equally upon aural and
reading skills.
Verbal competence is an important part of listening comprehension. An adequate
vocabulary aids listening and word retention. In fact, the effective use of words, through
both listening and speaking, is a definite business and social asset.
A listeners comprehension improves if there is interest in the topic before the
speech. Comprehension is also determined by the intensity of the listeners emotional
reaction to what is being said. Finally, a listeners level of understanding is influenced by
various methods of producing an ANTICIPATORY MINDSET. For example, if you introduce
your point by stating that it is going to be critical of, say, tax increases, your listeners are
more apt to remember your criticisms. You have created, in the minds of your audience, a
mindset to anticipate criticisms.
Environmental factors also influence comprehension. Good listeners will learn to
allow for or adjust to distracting elements, such as poor lighting or extraneous noises,
distance from the speaker, or other environmental shortcomings that the listener cannot
control.
Most people have an almost innate ability to distort information so that it fits into
their model of the world. This process is called SELECTIVE PERCEPTION and is relevant to
listening activity.
_________________________