Lamees A - The Power of Listening

I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.Ernest Hemingway

Listening is the most important constituent of verbal communication. If we dont listen to what is being said, we will not be able to improve our abilities and rise in life. Before we were able to read and write, we learned to speak by listening to the voices of our parents. This is but a small first step in a lifetime of listening and learning. We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. Epictetus. I believe we have two ears and only one mouth because listening is twice as hard as speaking.

We have to listen through life in order for us to grow. We have to listen to:

Our parents and siblings at home

Our teachers in school and college

Our superiors and colleagues at work

Our friends

Our spouse and children at home

Therefore, a good listener has a better chance to perform well in all aspects of life. Not only does it help us perform better academically and professionally, listening enables us to have a better relationship with our family, friends, and the society that we live in. Besides, it helps improve our sense of self-worth and makes us feel better equipped to face life with confidence, courage, and self-control.

We would imagine listening to be an instinctive and natural affair, not requiring any special attention, but that is not true. It is not merely a passive process that just requires us to receive information from someone else. On the contrary, listening is a very proactive process that requires a fair amount of skill to master fully.

Listening does not cost money. We dont have to agree with all that we listen to. But listening help us to gain a well balanced perspective and to develop our intellect.

Why do we need to be good listeners?

Communication is something that is an inalienable part of the process of daily living. We simply cannot decide to stop communicating. Even when we are silent, we are communicating by the kind of clothes we are wearing, facial expressions, and body language.

We need to communicate at work and at home, with our friends and relatives, and when we go out shopping. If we are good at the way we communicate, our lives generally tend to be smooth, as we are able to get our point across in most situations.

Ineffective communicators, on the other hand, invariably end up dealing with a number of problems, quarrels, clashes, fights, hurt feelings, wasted opportunities, being misunderstood, inefficiency, frustration, unhappiness, hopelessness, and despondency.

At the core of being a good communicator lies the art of effective listening. Mastering effective listening is a huge step towards being an effective communicator.