Active listening has a very strong relation with solving problems. It is completely true when it is said that poor listening is the reason behind more than half of the human problems. When we do not hear carefully and miss or misunderstand any point of the conversation or lecture, it is the point from where the problem begins. Because most of the time, people listen only with the intention to give a reply or to respond back. They actually did not listen to understand what someone was trying to say to them. Active listening plays a key role in solving problems. We can understand this from an example.
One of the biggest problems in the life of students is their assignments and class task. A large number of students take help from assignment writing service because they do not know what to write in assignments and where to write. The reason behind this problem is that they had not listened carefully to the instruction of their teacher when they were explaining that assignment in the class. They have missed the information provided in class which is why now they are taking help from anyone else.
Active listening – key to problem-solving:
There are numerous reasons behind saying that you have good problem-solving skills when an active listener.
One of the reasons behind this is that you listen carefully to everything when you have good listening skills and do not miss any important points. That is why you rarely have problems. If any problem may arise, you have a solution because you have all the information.
Secondly, a good listener does not misunderstand because when someone is talking to them, they easily understand their point and interpret in a way in which it is said. So there are no misunderstandings.
An active and good listener gives others a chance to speak and listen to them calmly and value their words. Actively listening to different people increases your knowledge and opens new gates of thoughts and perspective for the listener. Whenever any problem arises, the active listener has numerous solutions to learn by listening to people.
A good listener is usually critical and has broader perspectives, and these two qualities play a key role in solving problems.
Active listening helps you have good relations with the people around you, either friends and family or your employees. Active listening is very important for every relationship. And when you have a good relationship with the people around you, it automatically minimises the probability of having problems.
Active listening saves you from the communication gap as it is part of the art of communication.
How to improve listening skills:
To get the uncountable benefits of active listening, you need to improve your listening skills. Here are some easy and adaptable tips that will improve your listening easily and quickly without any hard work.
Pay proper attention:
The first and most important thing is that if you want to become an active listener, it is necessary to pay proper attention to people’s words. When you are talking to anyone, either more or least important, make sure you listen to everyone with proper attention. Now the question that arises is how to pay proper attention while listening? So here are some tips. When you are talking with someone or listening to someone, make eye contact with the speaker and look at them. Make sure to put aside all the distracting thoughts you have been thinking about before talking to them. When you start listening to someone, make sure to think about the words they are saying rather than thinking of anything unnecessary. At the same time, listening and verbal communication, you also have to pay attention to the non-verbal communication of the body language because the major part of every conversation is non-verbal.
Do not use your phone:
The biggest reason behind listening problems and the communication gap is a mobile phone. Mobile phone and their notification bell is the main distraction from any conversation. So if you really want to become an active listener, then you have to keep your mobile aside while listening to people. Never ever use your mobile phone during a conversation or lecture. Even do not hold your mobile phone in your hand while listening. Put your mobile phone on silent and away from your sight. Because when you have a mobile phone in front of your eyes, you unintentionally keep looking at it, which distracts your mind and makes it almost impossible to focus on the words of the person speaking in front of you.
Show that you are listening:
A good and active listener is one who makes feel the person speaking to them that they are listening to them and giving importance to what they are saying. Through your words and expression, keep showing that you are interested in listening to the speaker and responding where you feel important. Nod your head and respond with your facial expression or smile or say yes. When you show the speaker that you are listening, it helps the speaker and even the listener keep into the discussion or conversation and make it easy to avoid distractions. It also helps the listener to get rid of unnecessary thoughts.
Do not judge:
To learn active listening skills above all things, you must have the quality to not judge the words of a person and a person speaking to them. Listen to the speaker with an objective to understand what they are saying. Try to understand them, not judge them. Because when you start judging the person by their personality or words, you start getting away from the real objective which is listening to understand and learn from people.
Feedback:
Provide feedback to the speaker. This makes the conversation interactive and helps the speaker to understand how much you have understood. And if you have understood or interpreted any of the speaker’s words wrong, your feedback will help the speaker make clear the things that were unclear.