The 21st of September 2023 is International Day of Listening. Listening is arguably the most valuable skill you can possess. According to the research good listeners are perceived as better leaders, with peers experiencing higher job satisfaction and stronger commitment to the organisation.
Although we all try to be good listeners there are those inevitable sub-conscious traps that undermine our efforts. Sometimes our inner conversation is jumping from one idea to the next, over-thinking past conversations or improving yesterday's actions? These mental distractions impede your focus on the current interaction.
A common mistake some make is to inadvertently steer conversations back to our own personal experiences. Whilst I admit to being an offender, this approach doesn't empower others it just redirects the conversation back to you. Another inhibitor to effective listening in a conversation is cross talk or other external stimuli. The good news is that we can fine tune our attention through practice. If you wish to improve your influencing skills become the most interested person in the room not the most interesting.
A recent study featured in the International Journal of Listening (Lipetz, Kluger and Bodie, 2020) portrays interpersonal listening as a multi-dimensional construct.
It categorises listening into three dimensions;
1. Attention or behavioural,
2. Comprehension or cognitive, and
3. Intention or positive affect toward the speaker.
Some of the features of the study depicting good listening described the listeners approach to attention as compared with distraction. The cognitive aspect of understanding dialogue also was considered critical. The third key feature was the relatedness or friendly attitude. Thus, the studies indicated that the essence of listening contain perceptions of attention, understanding and positive forms of relationship.
The research serves as a guide for enhancing our listening skills. Interestingly, participants in workplace settings perceive listening as a holistic experience blending these competencies or dimensions into a unified whole. Consequently, it suggests that achieving competence in listening need not rely on sub-skills but perhaps providing individuals with a repeated practice of high-quality listening to emulate this experience. Perhaps practicing a specific listening state of mind using mindfulness training may also be beneficial.
In support of the significance of attention Thomas Davenport (2001) comments that understanding and managing attention is now the single most important determinant for business success. He argues that the overload of information highlights the gaining of attention and therefore the giving of our attention carries significant value or currency. Therefore, don’t let distraction erode the value of your contribution to the organisation.
Managing attention is important because the nature of interpersonal dynamics shape your organisation's quality and value. Professor Ralph Stacey's (2012) perspective is that outcomes of conversations or interactions are critical for a high-quality organisation. Quality open interactions stimulate novelty and the emergence of ideas without being solely driven by top-down directives. Therefore, listening in interactions at every level is critical to the organisation success.
Don’t forget to use International Day of Listening as a reminder of the benefits of listening, an opportunity to practice your attention skills and to create opportunities for good listening to be exhibited.
Mark Ferguson
References
Liora Lipetz, Avraham N Kluger & Graham D Bodie, Listening is Listening is Listening: Employees Perception of Listening as a Holistic Phenomenon, International Journal of Listening, 2020
Thomas Davenport, Accenture Institute of Strategic Change, The Attention Economy, Harvard Business School Press, 2001.
Professor Ralph Stacey, Tools and Techniques of Leadership and Management, Meeting the Challenge of Complexity, 2012
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