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Article Abstract
Article Abstract
Listen Up! Listening and How To Practice It
By Robert Bacal, M.A.
Possessing effective listening skills can help, whether in business or everyday activities, to present you as a strong, sincere, outgoing person. Effective listening can only come about with very disciplined training of the mind. It is hard to sit and listen for long periods of time to one-person control the conversation, and at the same time focus on keeping your mind from wondering. There are two ways to improve your listening ability: focus your attention and communicate your understanding.
Focusing your attention on someone while they are speaking is the hardest to accomplish. This can only be done with extensive practice. The practice should be done in the privacy of your own home, do not ever be so rude as to practice on a friend or even a stranger without them knowing. This skill should be enhanced at home with a television or radio. The objective is to keep loose thoughts from wondering into your mind and taking over. Once you feel that you can go a few minutes with very little interruptions you may begin trying it while others are speaking to you. You should notice that people would respond to you positively.
Communicating your understanding can be done a couple of different ways: empathetic listening and reflective listening. These skills can also be practiced but they may be practiced on friends and family and even business partners. Empathetic listening is done by listening to the conversation and responding with sympathy or happiness for the situation. Reflective listening is repeating briefly what has just been spoken to you by another person. This can help the speaker to know that you have just heard and understood what they were saying, it will also let them know if they were able to effectively get their point across.
I chose this article because I have been complemented in the past on my ability to listen. When someone, even a child, is speaking I try my best to give him or her all of my attention. Sometimes it is very hard to do, but this article has shown me that I am a reflective listener and I was able to receive pointers n how to improve on what skills I already possess.
http://www.work911.com/articles/listenup.htm
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