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What Great Listeners Actually Do

The document summarizes a study on effective listening skills. The study identified that truly effective listeners do more than just nod and say "mm-hmm". It found that great listeners engage the speaker through questioning, suggestions, and responses that make the speaker feel supported. The study developed four main findings on listening skills that contradict common assumptions. Specifically, it determined that simply being quiet is not as important as having a discussion with the speaker. The document also discusses how realizing we may have misconceptions about listening impacted the author. They learned the value of assessing the type of engagement and feedback different speakers need.

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Abcidy Brielle Coraline Vaettrie
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33 views1 page

What Great Listeners Actually Do

The document summarizes a study on effective listening skills. The study identified that truly effective listeners do more than just nod and say "mm-hmm". It found that great listeners engage the speaker through questioning, suggestions, and responses that make the speaker feel supported. The study developed four main findings on listening skills that contradict common assumptions. Specifically, it determined that simply being quiet is not as important as having a discussion with the speaker. The document also discusses how realizing we may have misconceptions about listening impacted the author. They learned the value of assessing the type of engagement and feedback different speakers need.

Uploaded by

Abcidy Brielle Coraline Vaettrie
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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In 2016, Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman (Zenger and Folkman, 2016)

researched where they identified or had conclusions regarding the people whom
they observed are good listeners. In this article, they also mentioned different levels
of listening as where a listener should be aware of what level he should use when
listening to a certain person. These levels are really helpful because every speaker
doesn’t need all the levels of listening or needs the highest level of a listener when
they are talking. The stages are relevant for the reason that they will not only help
the speaker boost up but also for us to understand, learn, empathize, and also give
pieces of advice. Listeners can always practice different stages of listenings so that
they would be able to apply these stages to different kinds of speakers.
This research shows that the common characteristics of a listener such as
nodding, keeping quiet, and saying “mm-hmm” are not the definition of good listening
skills. The researchers identified the great listeners and compared them to those
who appeared to be the average listeners. They developed conclusions where they
have four main qualities or findings. Their conclusions are very important because
these interpretations show that good listening is not that easy to do or practice. It is
also important because their interpretation shows that the general idea of good
listening is far from the actual characteristics of great listening. The researchers also
discussed the four main findings in their research which are far from what people
think. Keeping quiet while listening is not one of the greatest characteristics when
listening because the listener should always conversate with the speaker. He should
always engage in questioning, giving suggestions, and giving some words that can
help the speaker feel boosted and entertained. These are significant for the people
would have a new perspective and idea in being a great listener. It is also mentioned
that listeners should not only absorb information or messages from the speaker, but
they should also bring back some ideas to the speaker to engage in positive and
successful communication between them.
What affects me the most in this article is where it is mentioned that people
have the wrong idea of being a great listener. I do possess the general idea of
people of what a great listener is, and so I thought that the real characteristics are far
from what I practice as a listener. I realized that nodding and pretending to give
attention is not a trait of a good listener and it only causes the listener not to give a
good response that can help the speaker and also causes them not to understand
what the speaker is implying. The stages of listening also affected me because now I
know and I can determine which kind of stage I should apply when listening to
different speakers. One of my takeaways is also where it is mentioned that listeners
should be a trampoline and not a sponge, they should give back and not only
absorb.

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