Listening Counts -- The Competitive Edge (It's a skill, tool and a job.)
Listening is one of the most important tools in learning and understanding. Not just in the areas of research but in all our daily life. How is it then that we are not taught how to listen effectively or even to listen ineffectively? We are taught how to write and how to speak from our first year in school 'til our last. In many companies, we are exposed to seminars on writing and speaking, but when was the last time to your knowledge, a company presented seminars on listening? Unfortunately, our culture rewards talking and not listening.
A few facts about listening.
The one-day program was a very eye-opening experience for me. It made major changes in how I looked at and extracted information from, business meetings and other sessions like focus group meetings. One of the things that was done was to start off the session with an exercise that I believe demonstrates differences in how people listen. The exercise sets the tone for the day and reflects what is the benefit of the day-long experience.
How do I encourage readers to explore the development of listening skills when I have a one or two-page restriction? Let's try Bob and Jim's introductory exercise.
The task involves a 3x5-inch card which will end up being our
identification card for the day. One side of the card consists of
32 attributes arranged in 8 rows and 4 columns such as below:
_____ Egocentric | _____ Enthusiastic | _____ Passive | _____ Perfectionist |
_____ Direct | _____ Gregarious | _____ Patient | _____ Accurate |
_____ Daring | _____ Persuasive | _____ Loyal | _____ Fact-finder |
_____ Domineering | _____ Impulsive | _____ Predictable | _____ Diplomatic |
_____ Demanding | _____ Emotional | _____ Team-Person | _____ Systematic |
_____ Forceful | _____ Self-Promoting | _____ Serene | _____ Conventioned |
_____ Risk-Taker | _____ Trusting | _____ Possessive | _____ Courteous |
_____ Adventuresome | _____ Influential | _____ Complacent | _____ Conscientious |
Before starting the task, it may be appropriate to make a copy of this page so that others may also do the exercise. On your copy, look at each row of four attributes (left to right). Looking at the four attributes in the row, select the one that best describes you and place a two in front of the attribute. Next, among the three remaining attributes, select the one that best describes you and place a one in front of that attribute. Do the same two steps for the remaining seven rows of attributes.
After all eight rows of attributes have been assessed, total each column.
On the chart below, graph your totals. Each space is two unites.
Use the spaces to create a histogram of your scores.
First | Second | Third | Fourth |
_____ | _____ | _____ | _____ |
_____ | _____ | _____ | _____ |
_____ | _____ | _____ | _____ |
_____ | _____ | _____ | _____ |
_____ | _____ | _____ | _____ |
_____ | _____ | _____ | _____ |
_____ | _____ | _____ | _____ |
_____ | _____ | _____ | _____ |
____________________ | ____________________ | ____________________ | ____________________ |
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The above is your personal Hearing Aide. It is a part of your natural personality. It can change, depending upon experiences, even day-to-day. It can also be changed through skill development. But for today, it is your personal profile. What does it mean? First, this is a shortened version of a much larger Personal Profile System, but for the purposes of understanding our listening skills, it is appropriate.
Following are four personality types. No one person to my knowledge
ever falls completely in one category. We tend to have a dominant
characteristic and elements of others, ergo a profile.
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H-Type "Conclusive Opportunists" | Readily grasp the "big picture"
Quickly come to conclusions Hear possibilities |
Impatient with the process
Rule out feeling-type information Doesn't allow others to add detail |
E-Type "Futuristic Feelers" | Readily grasp feeling-type information
Easily projects to future/new ideas |
Doesn't give others air-time
Ignores factual information Finds it hard to stay focused |
A-Type "Processors" | Readily grasp how to or process info
Gives attention to detail In touch with feelings Good at seeing interconnections among complex variables |
Afraid to express insights
Doesn't offer enough intuitively-driven hypotheses |
R-Type "Factual Understanders" | Readily grasp Why-type information
Hear Depth Tremendous capacity for detail |
Don't trust imagination enough
Don't look enough for broad themes |
The above just covers the key point of the listening assessment due
to the limited space in this paper. However, I do believe that it
can reflect the strengths and weaknesses of an individual. If you
have a friend or a group of friends complete the exercise, I think you
can see the diversity among just a small group. Have fun but remember
it is just one point of view.
ARE YOU LISTENING?