Effective Communication Skills

listening skills are very important. They help us with maintaining good relations with other people. They are also important in business, workplace and classroom.
When you are in meetings or attending an important lecture, here too they play an important role so that you do not miss out on the important points. Many people do not have good listening skills as they do not pay much importance to it. As a result, they find their attention wavering away easily from the current conversation.

So how to improve listening skills?
Here are 2 simple exercises to improve listening skills:
1. Whenever you are listening to somebody speak, make it a habit to give oral acknowledgments like ‘I see’, ‘I understand’ etc. And then occasionally summarize in your own words what you understood of whatever was said by the other person. Summarizing the conversation in your own words every now and then, helps you in two ways. First up, it keeps you actively involved in the conversation thus preventing your attention from wandering away.
Secondly, it can help in preventing any misunderstandings because if you understood something incorrectly then the speaker can correct you when you are repeating in your words what he/she has said.
2. Ask questions: Ask questions whenever you need clarification for anything or you do not properly understand what was said. Asking questions can help keep the conversation alive, prevent misunderstandings, and also help in developing your listening skills.
There are a lot of factors which affect how much attention we can pay to the other person. The main thing to remember is that the more actively involved you are in a conversation, the easier it is to pay proper attention to it. You can be actively involved in any conversation by asking relevant questions, discussing your own point of view on the topic, acknowledging and summarizing in your own words etc. The main purpose of all good exercises is to develop in you the active listening.
The above exercises to improve listening skills can be very helpful in keeping your mind alert to what is being said.
Related Articles:
1. Read my article spelling out 15 tips to improve listening skills - active listening communication skills
2. Have you ever encountered those difficult demanding and aggressive people whom it is never easy to satisfy? Do you want to learn ways to deal properly with them at workplace, home, family and in your friends circle? Here are some tips - living with difficult demanding people
by Syd Hs
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