Listening is a communication skill that requires a lot of practice, as it is very different from hearing. Information being sent by a speaker is not tangible substance, it requires an active listener, as such, there is need to improve attitudes and behavior in order to become better listeners. Some of the problems that results from poor listening skills includes; closed mindedness, false attention, Day dreaming, and intellectual despair.
Closed mindedness occurs when people are arguing and one person refuse to listen to the other side of argument, due to the fact that he has already made up his/her mind that he/she is right on a certain issue. Day dreaming happens when the mind of a person associate some information from a speaker to something else making him to go off the active process of listening. By the time the person is through with this association, a lot of information will have passed him/her. False attention is used when someone is not interested with what a speaker is saying. In this case, a person will pretend that he /she is listening while in real sense the mind is far away. Vital information is lost through false attention.
To improve listening skills, the following positive steps help a person towards becoming a better listener. A person should always prepare him/herself to listen. Here, a change of attitude is important as the mind is trained the importance of a particular topic. It is very important to watch the speaker and maintain eyes contacts. This way visual distractions are avoided and the listener develop awareness of the speaker mannerism like tones and body language that make up 95% of listening communication process. It is important to note any question that the speaker poses as in most cases the answer have important information that the speaker want to pass.
Having learned strategies for improving my listening skills, I have been able to know where I have been going wrong in my listening and how I am going to improve to be a better listener, for example in my class lectures, I have been concentrating on notes taking most. This has been distracting me from active listening and in most cases the information that the lecture is communicating passes me as I busy myself with notes taking. I will always try to maintain eye contact with the lecturer and speakers, that way I will be able to listen actively without much visual distractions.
Whenever I have an argument, I tend to refuse to listen to the person that I am in argument, with thinking that my point is correct and valid. This makes me loose a lot of important information. I will always take time to listen to the other person as it is only through fair hearing that the other person can loosen up and listen to my argument.
Recently I was in an argument with my colleague on the likely winner of the 2008 US presidential race. With my closed mind, I failed to give my colleague a chance to give point as to why he supported his preferred candidate. Attending the history class the following day, the lecture asked us to write an essay on the candidate that my colleague was supporting. Had I given him a chance to explain himself, I could have learned important facts and information about that candidate which could have helped me in writing the history essay.