44 | The Lion King
Career
Listening Skills:
Essential skill for
excellent performance
By Abayomi Orungbe
E
ffective listening requires concen-
tration and the use of your other
senses - not just hearing the words
spoken.
Listening is not the same as hearing
and in order to listen effectively you
need to use more than just your ears.
Listening is the ability to accurately
receive and interpret messages in the
communication process. It is key to all
effective communication, without the
ability to listen effectively messages are
easily misunderstood – communication
breaks down and the sender of the
message can easily become frustrated
or irritated.
Listening is so important that many top
employers provide listening skills training
for their employees. This is not surprising
when you consider that good listen-
ing skills can lead to: better customer
satisfaction, greater productivity with
fewer mistakes, increased sharing of in-
formation that in turn can l ead to more
creative and innovative work.
A good listener will listen not only to
what is being said, but also to what is
left unsaid or only partially said.
Effective listening involves observing
body language and noticing inconsist-
encies between verbal and non-verbal
messages
Many successful leaders and entrepre-
neurs credit their success to effective
listening. Richard Branson frequently
quotes listening as one of the main
factors behind the success of Virgin.
Effective listening is a skill that underpins
all positive human relationships. Spend
some time thinking about and devel-
oping your listening skills – they are the
building blocks of success.
Good listening skills also have benefits
in our personal lives, including:
A greater number of friends and social
networks, improved self-esteem and
confidence, higher grades at school
and in academic work and even better
health and general well-being. Studies
have shown that, whereas speaking
raises blood pressure, listening brings it
down.
Listening is Not the Same as Hearing
Hearing refers to the sounds that you
hear, whereas listening requires more
than that: it requires focus. Listening
means paying attention not only to the
story, but how it is told, the use of lan-
guage and voice, and how the other
person uses his or her body. In other
words, it means being aware of both
verbal and non-verbal messages. Your
ability to listen effectively depends on
the degree to which you perceive and
understand these messages.
The most basic and
powerful way to
connect to another
person is to listen.
Just listen. Perhaps
the most important
thing we ever give
each other is our
attention.”
- Rachel Naomi Remen.
Time Spent Communicating
© 2012,
Writing
9%
Reading
16%
Speaking
30%
Listening
45%
Not Communicating
30%
Communicating
70%
