What are the barriers to effective listening

Effective communication is a valuable skill in the workplace, and listening properly is the most important part of effective communication.

Poor listening skills definitely make a huge, negative impact on team morale and productivity. This situation usually results in conflicts and misunderstandings among team members, and it creates a negative environment.

Fortunately, listening skills can be learned. The first step is to identify the barriers to listening. The second step is to consciously implement the tips provided here to overcome those barriers.

Good conversational skills are an asset, and a person with these skills are more likely to achieve professional success. However, talking more than necessary is a barrier to effective communication. People hesitate to interact with a person who talks excessively without listening to them. They may also get bored, and excessive talking may be perceived as aggression.

Try these tips to overcome this habit:

• Think before you speak, and don’t speak if you have nothing important to contribute.
• Practice self-control. Allow the other person to speak.
• Avoid interrupting when the other person is speaking.
• Be aware of indulging in useless talk for the sake of talking.
• Be brief while conveying your thoughts.
• Observe your listener’s reactions while speaking.

Prejudice

Prejudice is a preconceived opinion of feeling, which is usually irrational. Prejudice is very dangerous and has the potential to bring animosity into the team and to break team spirit. The reason for a prejudice may be the speaker’s race, religion, age or appearance. A prejudiced person will not make any effort to listen and understand.

Overcoming prejudice while listening:

• Respect the other person for his or her knowledge and skills, irrespective of the person’s background.
• Make conscious efforts to take charge of your thoughts.
• Consciously avoid taking an “I know what he or she is going to say” attitude while the other person is speaking.

Distractions

The four main types of distractions are physical, mental, auditory and visual. Here’s how to avoid this common barrier:

• Face the person who is speaking.
• Maintain eye contact while the other person is speaking.
• Ensure that you are comfortable.
• Switch off the cell phone.

Everybody has their own personal beliefs and value systems, and it’s natural to want to apply them to others around us. Learn to appreciate that others don’t have to share your beliefs. In fact, their unique perspectives may shine light on problems and issues that you haven’t been able to deal with before!

Misunderstanding

The inability to hear correctly is one of the many reasons for misunderstanding what a speaker is trying to communicate. You may think that it’s impolite to ask the speaker to clarify his words or intentions, but that’s not the case at all. Most people will appreciate the fact that you are making a focused effort to really understand what they are trying to say.

Interrupting

Interrupting a conversation with improper body language or inappropriate words will have a negative impact in effective communication. Here’s some tips to help you avoid this barrier to effective listening:

• Listen without interrupting while the other person is speaking.
• If you seek to clarify something, use appropriate body language such as raising your hand or ask politely for more details (like “I am sorry to interrupt you…”).

Faking Attention

The person who is faking attention is just “hearing” but not “listening.” There may be some eye contact and the person may even be nodding, but the mind is elsewhere. The person may be thinking about what to have for lunch or what to wear for the party that evening. Faking attention is a habit for some people, but it conveys lack of respect and dishonesty.

Try these tips:

• Make it a habit to listen attentively. It is advisable to assume that the other person knows something that you may not know.
• Avoid thinking about how to reply when the other person is speaking.
• This habit can be overcome by taking notes while the other person is speaking.

Bringing in Emotions

Emotions erect barriers to effective communication. A listener’s senses are not likely to be functioning at their optimum level when he or she is angry. Likewise, it is not possible to understand or appreciate what the speaker is saying if the listener is excessively sad.

Tip: It is better to avoid conversations when you are angry or excessively sad.

Noise

Noise is any unwanted sound. It is a great impediment to clear communication. It is impossible to listen in a noisy environment – it becomes a frustrating experience for both the speaker and the listener.

• Try to avoid conversations in noisy surroundings.
• Eliminate the source of noise whenever possible. Turn off cell phones, radios and television sets.

Fear

Fear is a great barrier to listening. People who are afraid during a conversation are not likely to listen. They become defensive and tend to argue.

Tips to overcome fear:

• Be aware that fear can only worsen the situation. Listen to what the other person is about to say without fear.
• Keeping calm will give you mental strength to face any situation.
• Taking a deep breath helps in overcoming fear.

Great leaders are good listeners. Effective listening is a valuable skill that helps team members achieve their goals efficiently and improves productivity. This skill is necessary to stay competitive in the current global scenario. Implementing the above mentioned tips will definitely help in improving listening skills. It is possible with self examination and self discipline.

Reference

“Listening Effectively,” Wright State University, //www.wright.edu/~scott.williams/LeaderLetter/listening.htm

Webb, Michael, “Eight Barriers to Effective Listening,” //sklatch.net/thoughtlets/listen.html

Learning Objectives

• Explain how anticipating can be a barrier to listening effectively.
• Explain how judging can be a barrier to effective listening.
• Explain how emotional reactions can be a barrier to effective listening.

To become good at active listening takes work. It almost requires going back to a baby to remember how to focus all attention on what another person says. Babies are great role models: they listen and observe everything around them. This is how they learn to become a person in a social setting. That intent observation and listening is what one should strive to do.

Listening is a tool that is not formally taught in most classes. It is very common for a person to believe that all one has to do is sit, hear, and appear attentive. That does not mean that one is listening actively and engaging in the communication event. Our minds are very busy. We are often thinking about home, work, school, and personal communities no matter what we are doing. We have places to go, people to visit, things to do—all of those thoughts seem to pop up when it is necessary to listen actively. It is the noise of the mind that can be tamed by listening actively.

So, what kinds of barriers hinder and obstruct active listening? Knowing what these barriers are helps with overcoming them when needed.

Anticipating

We have all had this barrier at some point. This is when you start formulating what you want to say before the speaker finishes what they are stating. This barrier pops in when someone seems to be taking too long to make a point. In this case, you might assume what their conclusion is and start thinking of how to respond to it. Other times, someone seems to speak slower than is your style, seems unknowledgeable, or seems to take up too much of your time. In every case, it is common for the mind to drift into thinking about how you want to respond and what words you want to convey.

Anticipation can be a big barrier for active listening. It is something that most people have to work on eliminating from their listening practice. Think of this: your teenager comes home angry about an altercation at school. She comes to you and explains what happened to her. Before she has finished telling the story, you may already be thinking about contacting the other parent, friend, spouse, or principal. You may think what a stupid thing to get so upset about and how to say that nicely. You may think about what advice would be best to provide in this situation, or how you can help to solve the problem. It is amazing how quickly any one, or all, of these responses can overtake the mind and leave you only half listening. It is by half listening that you might miss a critical piece to your teen’s story. You might even find yourself cutting her off and starting your formulated response. There is no better way for a teen to feel hurt and unheard than to not listen to them actively. This is the point where many teens stomp off to their room and leave the parent wondering, what just happened?

A parent who is an active listener will stop and focus on the teen’s words. They will notice their daughter’s nonverbal communication. They will wait until the story’s end before thinking about what to say or do next. Active listening will most likely end in positive problem-solving and providing what the teen needs while creating a greater trust between the parent and their child. The teen will know that their parent is really listening to them.

Judging

Just like anticipating what another is going to say before they finish speaking, judging is a common occurrence for a listener. When this barrier arises, the listener is sizing up the speaker while the person is talking. For example, a presenter may have forgotten one component of an important process, which could be an honest mistake. However, the listeners might judge that this person does not understand this process and is therefore not credible. Judging someone based on a small error interferes with listening.

Once a judgement has been made, listening is lessened. You might find yourself noticing every small detail about the person that is wrong—their hair, dress, speaking style, and so on. You may find that you stop listening actively because the speaker lost credibility by making a mistake. You are making a choice to stop listening and rate the speaker poorly.

An active listener will acknowledge the mistake and let it go. They will accept the fact that people are fallible but that does not make them incompetent. They will look past the mistake and give the person a chance to complete what they have to say. Most of the time, this person will show their competence and repair their credibility.

Emotional Reactions

There are times when a speaker may hit an emotional trigger that results in creating a listening barrier. It has happened to everyone. A speaker may talk about a topic that is extremely emotional to you. This person might talk about the death of a loved one, which floods you with memories and emotions about a person who died in your life. Once those emotions hit, you won’t hear the rest of the speech.

The same is true for contentious subjects such as immigration, abortion, health care, vaccinations, and so on. When a topic that you feel very strongly about is posed, you are more likely to stop listening and start formulating a response and judge the person speaking. At this point, you are not actively listening. This emotional barrier interferes with your ability to effectively hear the other person’s viewpoint and effectively respond based upon your attentive listening. This could mean that the argument on this topic is lost due to an inability to have thoughtful communication.

Someone who is an active listener also has emotional triggers. The difference is that this person will acknowledge the emotions that are there and set them aside to hear what the other person has to say. They will wait to hear everything before constructing a response and will try to withhold judgement. This is not easy. It is a skill that takes time and patience to employ. Emotional barriers are difficult to overcome as emotional triggers mean that we have deep seeded thoughts about the subject. To see great examples of this barrier in action, you need look no further than the news. News talk shows often have high emotional tensions that could block listening between the speakers.

Active listening takes into account the various barriers that could occur—anticipation, judgement, and emotion. The first step to being a good listener is to acknowledge that these barriers happen. Then, you can incorporate strategies into your listening practice that will make you a better and more effective listener.