Week 9 Post 2: The importance of Listening

Listening is a very important aspect of being able to communicate with others. The importance of listening extends far beyond academic and professional settings. Understanding how to practice good communication even in your day to day life, among friends, family, and significant others, is important for a number of reasons: fostering good self-esteem, maximizing productivity and getting better grades in school, improving relationships, and even becoming a better speaker. Studies have also shown that speaking raises blood pressure, however listening actually lowers blood pressure.

The listening process involves 5 different steps: (taken directly from the Communication Blog - http://tcbdevito.blogspot.com/2011/04/communication-strategies-listening.html)

1.      Receiving - The first stage in the process of listening is receiving the message. At this stage you listen not only to what is said (verbally and nonverbally) but also to what is omitted. You receive, for example, your boss’s summary of your accomplishments as well as the omission of your shortcomings or, perhaps, vice versa. 

2.      Understanding - The second stage of listening is understanding the message. That is, after receiving the message, you process it and try extract the meaning from the message that the speaker wants you to come away with.

3.      Remembering - The third stage of listening is remembering the message. It would little help to you if you received and understood the message but didn’t remember it. If you want to remember what someone says or the names of various people, this information needs to pass from your short-term memory (for example the memory you use to remember a phone number just long enough to write it down) into long-term memory (or relatively permanent memory).

4.      Evaluating - Once you’ve received, understood, and have the message in memory, you need to evaluate it. After all, not all messages are equal, some are lies, and some are truths. Some can be significant and some can be trivial. Some are constructive, and on the other hand some are destructive.

5.      Responding - After you evaluate the message, you’re likely to respond in some way. And, of course, a speaker expects a response. This step shows the speaker that you were actually listening to what they were saying rather than just daydreaming. This is particularly important in a work setting, especially if your boss or somebody of upper management is the speaker.