INTRODUCTION LISTENING plays an important role for an effective communication. The ability to listen well is quite as important as the ability to speak well. In communication, however good a transmitter is, it becomes effective only in partnership with a good listener. It is obvious that unless someone listens, any effort to communicate will be lost. After all, communication involves the negotiation of mutual meanings, which requires two parties.
Listening requires hard work as it involves concentration. It takes energy to concentrate on listening to what is being said, to concentrate on understanding what has been heard, and to make an objective evaluation of what has been understood. Lack of listening skill is primarily responsible for many of the problems we experience with people. Sometimes it happens when we talk to others, they are just hearing us instead of listening and then it creates miscommunication which leads to poor decision making.
Some people confuse hearing with listening. But listening is something more than hearing. Hearing is simply a psychological process which is very fast and automatic and requires hardly any effort. On the other hand, listening first involves paying attention to the sounds. This process involves analyzing, organizing, interpreting and understanding the message by inferring the meaning.
There are various objectives of listening- to learn, to increase one’s understanding, to increase one’s options.
Commonly we tend to listen to those