Active listening: definition and practical use

In today's article “Active listening - definition and practical use” we are not only going to remind you what this basic communication skill consists of, We are also going to tell you about the advantages for your company of having a leader who knows how to “really listen”. The objective? To improve the working environment in your company and increase the level of happiness and satisfaction of your important staff. The issue is more important than it seems, so go for it! Continue reading...

Active listening: definition

Active listening is a communication skill which consists of attentively processing the message sent by our interlocutor through their words, their looks, their gestures, their silences... In active listening, we listen to (redundancy aside) both verbal language of the interlocutor, such as non-verbal language: gestures, glances, posture of the back, neck or hands, silences, pauses between sentences...

To practice so-called active listening has a lot to do with empathy, You know what we mean: the ability to feel as one's own the problems, opinions or subjective feelings that are interspersed in the conversation, almost always in a non-explicit way and through non-verbal language.

Active listening is an innate ability empathetic and sensitive human beings, This is something that at first sight seems complicated if we move in a complicated and competitive professional environment. The good news is that We can all learn to be active listeners. What's more, more and more companies are looking for leaders and managers with the ability to listen actively, act accordingly, and so on, improve that internal communication so necessary for business success.

Active listening: business benefits

As you can imagine, practising active listening is very important both at a personal and family level. But if we focus on the professional and business sphere, we will see that practising active listening is extremely cost-effective for our organisation. Two reasons:

1. For a manager to practise active listening with employees reinforces the feeling of commitment and loyalty of these towards the company. Thus, an employee who feels listened to will hardly think of leaving his or her job in search of other opportunities or will lower his or her performance voluntarily, etc.
2. Active listening positively influences the working climate, at that positive environment that all professionals need in order to be more profitable and productive.

How can we improve our active listening skills?

As we said before, we can all learn The more empathetic people will, of course, find it easier to adopt the habit. Some basic tips:

• In active listening personal predisposition is key. So, before engaging in a conversation “remember” that your role is to really listen to your interlocutor without judging, prejudging or letting your imagination run away with other issues or problems.
• As we pointed out in the definition of active listening, empathy is essential on this topic. Trying to “feel” the same emotions that your interlocutor is trying to convey, his fears, criticisms or observations is fundamental in this communicative process.
• In active listening the non-verbal language of your interlocutor is extremely important, but so is yours. Watch your body posture, the direction of your gaze, the gestures of assent or negation that we all make almost involuntarily, etc.

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