Improving Communication Skills with Active Listening Essay - 1

Improving Communication Skills with Active Listening - Essay Example Though it might sound very easy at first but that is not the case because there are many factors that are involved which can prove to be hindrances in the process of hearing, some of these factors can be external i.e. noise, for example, may interrupt a conversation or hinder your understanding of what the person is saying, another aspect is internal which is when you might not be interested in the conversation and your mind wanders off the topic. Another problem that is linked with listening is that the mind has the ability to think 4 times faster than any speaker, hence there is a processing gap, the mind tends to wander off rather than concentrating on what the other person is saying and that could cause some sort of misunderstanding. Does this mean that one would have to listen to every word the other person is saying? Not necessarily, but what is imperative is that you listen to the person and build a mental image of what he or she is trying to put across, the message should be concentrated upon and mental images of what is being put across should be developed in the mind. How these problems could be overcome so that one becomes an effective listener and understands what is being put across more often than not? The answers lie in active listening, active listening means that one is not just listening but is carrying out an action or actions that involve him in the whole process as well. The first thing that should be done is that the listener should have empathy for the speaker, what that means is that the listener should place himself in the shoes of the person who is speaking, this helps by understanding the situation in a much better manner. The second point is that there should be acceptance of what is being said, acceptance does not by any way mean that you accept or agree to whatever is being said but it largely means that you accept whatever a person is saying might be true and right, you should not jump to conclusions and you cannot be judgmental, what happens is that the lag time between the speakers ability to speak and the minds ability to process is used up by the mind to think of rebuttals to a what a person is saying and that hinders the listening process because you are being judgmental of what is being said are on the lookout to counter-attack.