Why active listening is critical in business? Most
of us tend to hear rather than LISTEN. Listen shows that you are serious and
committed in acquiring and confirming the information. Paying attentive
listening proves significant as an ability to understand thoroughly the defined
meanings, understood the read lines clearly and enables to relate to with the
speaker. We may have encountered poor listening habit which contributes to repetitive
of tasks, poor quality output, customer’s dissatisfaction, wrong interpretation
and waste of raw materials. How does a poor listening skill affect the overall
operation?
Several times when I order the required food and
beverages at Mamak restaurants, there is bound to be a mistake. I ordered Tea
but the waiter shall bring Ice Tea. One of the key weaknesses I noticed in a
Mamak restaurant is their waiters shall take order without jotting down in
their order record. Another incident related to poor listening skills was with
Astro. I called their customer care line to inform the defects on the decoder due
to lightening. Their customer representative had wrongly inserted my address
and I had to wait up to 10 days for a new installation. Worse I had to call them
every day to find out what went wrong. They only found it out one the 9th
day that the address was inserted wrongly. My colleague who works as Quality
Manager stated that his newly recruited foreign operators from Bangladesh had
caused a delay in customer delivery. According to him, his supervisors had
carried out the wrong instructions in their operation. The situation fused
further as the foreign operators had poor understanding, language barrier and
poor listening skills that resulted repetitive of tasks, time and cost. Poor
listening occurs at top level management too. A friend of mine who works as a Project Manager communicates with his fellow employees at India's manufacturing
plant through video conferencing. He claimed that if new points were highlighted,
his counterparts hardly shall take any notes. He even voiced it out several
times but his counterparts would normally reply by stating that the information
is well stored in their memory. However after some time their output may missed
out several details that was initially discussed through video conference. Few
years back, when our company did its annual dinner at a hotel, we clearly
explained that the food must not contain beef. The hotel’s sales staff noted
the on the confirmation but it was still served along the food on the occasion.
The sales staff apologized and stated there was a miscommunication between the
event and kitchen department that resulted the embarrassment.
Most of the poor listening skills occur in an
organization because of several employees’ attitude who takes things for
granted. Our memory is always considered as an excellent tool to store inputs
but it may not be the most effective one. The management should always ensure
their employees are given the right tips of improving their listening skills. Below
I inserted a simple key technique for ensuring effective listening skills.
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à Create a positive image on caller’s mind that you are
interested
à Be attentive and maintain eye contact
![*](file:///C:/Users/User/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.gif)
à Ensure you get the whole story by clarification and use
questions to assist your direction in conversation.
à Use notepad, note books or sticky notes to record
important points
![*](file:///C:/Users/User/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.gif)
à Stick to the point by stating your purpose
à Adhere to prepared agenda
![*](file:///C:/Users/User/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.gif)
à Before you move on to the next topic make sure you
have understand.
à Ask questions for clarification
![*](file:///C:/Users/User/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.gif)
à Analyze what has been said to you
à Double check any outward modifications
![*](file:///C:/Users/User/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.gif)
à Keep open mind, be patient and tolerant
à Avoid pre conceptions and suspend immediate judgment
à Do not interrupt
According to Richard Branson through his article The Art of Asking
Advice, he claimed that listening skills are essential in problem-solving. He
stated that when he was a giving a talk in Greece 20 years back, an individual kept
on asking him excellent questions. Richard Branson noticed that this particular
audience had LISTENED intently to understand all the responded queries. Richard
Branson claimed that this particular individual had shown the drive to succeed
and it was meant to be too. The referred individual was Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who
later became the founder of low cost airlines ‘easyJet’ and have ventured to
other travel and leisure related business. Imagine how valuable the information
has been for Stelios Haji-Ioannou during the queries with Richard Branson. He could have asked
questions but if he did not emphasize effective listening skills, how sure it
would have back tracked his strategic references.
Listening is a significant skill that ensures the effectiveness of job,
department functionality, clear instructions, smoothness of operation, conflict
resolution, motivating employees’, decision making and
enhancing customer relationship. Employees’ needs to practice their listening
skills through the right techniques and their superiors should always emphasize
its importance. It is not how we are engaged with listening but gaining the ACCURATE information through effective
listening skills.
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