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Listening and Wellness
We spend roughly 60% of our communication time listening, but we only retain around 25% of what we have heard. Listening is a mental process – a process of extraction. Our brains use some impressive techniques to do this. One of which is called pattern recognition, and one of the most common patterns we recognise is our own name. Have you ever been in a meeting, and your mind has drifted… suddenly you hear your name, and you immediately focus your attention back on the meeting?
We also use filters when listening, and these include:
- culture
- language
- values
- beliefs
- attitudes
- expectations
- intentions
Intention plays a significant role in listening and absorbing information. Having the right intention to listen is known as conscious listening. If you are not consciously listening, the information gets lost and becomes background noise. Julian Treasure, the author of ‘How to be Heard’, suggests five ways to improve your listening:
- Silence
Put aside three minutes each day to sit in silence.
- The mixer
Listen to the individual sounds that contribute to the mix of sounds in a noisy place. For example, how many different sounds can you hear in a coffee shop? If you prefer a more relaxing experience, sit in a place of nature and try to identify all the different sounds you can hear.
- Savour
Find joy in mundane sounds; they can be fascinating. For example, listen to the rhythm of the tumble dryer or coffee grinder.
- Adjust
Change your listening position to what's appropriate to what you're listening to. Be conscious of the filters (culture, language, values, beliefs, attitudes, expectations and intentions) through which you listen and make adjustments.
- RASA
This is an acronym for:
- Receive – paying attention to the other person
- Appreciate – making noises such as ‘OK’ or ‘hmm’ to show you are listening
- Summarise – summing up the communication
- Ask – asking questions afterwards
Active Listening
In the workplace, we often refer to ‘conscious listening’ as active listening.
In the busy environment of a workplace or working from home and communicating through video meetings, it's easy to become distracted while someone is talking, either by what's happening around us or by our thoughts.
Selective Listening
At work, active listening can help you respond to people in ways that make them feel understood. Often, when people talk to us, we end up getting caught up in our own thoughts about what we're going to say next to respond to something they've said, or we begin forming opinions about what they're saying. This is known as selective listening and distracts us from fully hearing someone at the time, or we might even end up unknowingly interrupting them.
The Benefits of Active Listening
Active listening is a skill that takes practice but, once mastered, it can be applied to all aspects of your life. A few examples of the benefits are:
- Grasping new and important information
- Resolving problems effectively
- Building connections
- Expanding knowledge
- Building trust
- Avoiding misunderstandings
Active listening is more than just paying attention – it is a technique used in counselling, training and solving disputes and conflicts.
Active listening is a communication skill that enables leaders, executives, and managers to communicate more effectively and resolve issues. It not only facilitates friendly, empathetic dialogue, but it also has the ability to boost positivity.
If you would like assistance with your wellness initiatives, please speak to the team at IHRS who can assist you in building a wellness programme tailored to your firm’s specific needs. Email HRhelp@ihrsolutions.co.uk, call 01604 709509 or visit our website.