How to Improve Your Active Listening Skills for Better Communication

Communication plays a crucial role in relationships, businesses, and daily life. Excellent communication skills can determine how successful an individual is in their personal and professional lives. Communication entails not only speaking but also active listening. Active listening is a skill that enables an individual to understand, retain, and respond appropriately to the messages passed on to them. Unfortunately, active listening is a skill that most people overlook. Nearly 45% of the communication time is dedicated to listening, yet the average listening comprehension rate is only 25%. This implies that people only retain a quarter of what they hear, which is dismal. In this article, we will explore how to improve active listening skills for better communication.

1. Eliminate Distractions

The first step towards improving your active listening skills is to eliminate distractions. Distractions could be physical or emotional. Physical distractions are external factors that hinders attentiveness and focus, such as a noisy environment, people talking in the background, or visual disturbance. Whereas emotional distractions are internal factors that interfere with the ability to listen attentively and understand effectively. It could be having preconceived notions or biases about the speaker's ideology, attitudes, or beliefs that hinder the listener's ability to focus on the message being passed across. Therefore, to improve your active listening skills, ensure you eliminate all distractions.

2. Show Interest

Another way to improve your active listening skills for better communication is by showing interest in what the other person is saying. This involves demonstrating that you’re engaged in the conversation and are interested in understanding the speaker's message. Active listening involves both verbal and nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication cues can include but are not limited to, eye contact, nodding, slight smiles, and affirmative gestures such as a thumbs up. These cues help to convey that you’re listening, providing feedback and encourage the speaker to share more details.

3. Avoid Interrupting

Interrupting while listening is a bad habit that can hinder effective communication. Interruptions can be viewed as a demonstration of impatience, disrespect, or lack of Interest. Interrupting cuts off the speaker's flow of thoughts and can cause the speaker to lose their train of thought. In the long run, this leads to missed messages and a breakdown in communication. Therefore, when listening, it is recommended that you hold all questions, thoughts, or comments until the speaker has finished expressing themselves.

4. Ask Questions

Active listening involves not only hearing but also understanding, interpreting, and responding. A way to improve your active listening skills is by asking questions. Asking clarifying questions helps to deepen your understanding of the message being conveyed. Additionally, it shows the speaker that their message is essential, and you’re willing to delve deeper into the subject. To ask relevant questions, you must not only listen but also pay attention to the speaker's tone, choice of words, and nonverbal cues.

5. Paraphrase

A way to show that you are not only listening but also understanding is by paraphrasing. Paraphrasing involves repeating the speaker's message in your own words. This not only demonstrates that you are listening but also allows the speaker to clarify any ambiguity in the message. Additionally, it shows the speaker that you’re interested and have an open mind. Paraphrasing helps to improve accurate interpretation and understand the ideas conveyed effectively.

6. Remain Objective

Remaining objective is another essential aspect of active listening. Active listening involves understanding and interpreting the message conveyed. To do this, you must remain objective and avoid being biased, subjective, or judgmental. Your views, ideology, or beliefs should not interfere with your ability to listen attentively. Instead, you should listen with an open mind and be willing to see things from the speaker's perspective. Additionally, remaining objective helps to create a sense of trust and respect, which promotes effective communication.

7. Be Empathetic

Another way to improve active listening skills for better communication is by being empathetic. Empathy involves understanding and connecting with the speaker's emotions. By showing empathy, you demonstrate that you acknowledge and understand the speaker's feelings. Empathy helps to create a sense of compassion and rapport, which improves communication and fosters better relationships. Additionally, empathy can help to identify distress signals in the speaker, enabling you to respond appropriately.

8. Practice Active Listening

Practice makes perfect, and this applies to active listening too. To improve your active listening skills, you must practice daily. Make it a habit to listen actively in every conversation. You can do this by setting aside some time to practice active listening while speaking with family members or friends. Additionally, you can practice active listening by attending and participating in group discussions, meetings, or public speaking events. The more you practice the skill, the more you’ll improve.

Conclusion

Excellent communication skills are required for successful relationships, businesses, and daily life. Listening is a vital component of communication and active listening is a skill that every individual should strive to improve. It involves eliminating distractions, showing interest, avoiding interruptions, asking questions, paraphrasing, remaining objective, being empathetic, and practicing. By improving your active listening skills, you demonstrate that you’re attentive, respectful, and interested, which fosters better relationships and communication. Therefore, make a habit of practicing active listening daily, and you’ll reap the great benefits it has to offer.