Develop Ethical Listening Skills
The act of hearing is what our body does physically; our ear takes in sound waves. However, when we interpret [or make sense of] those sound waves, that’s called listening. Think about the last time you gave a speech. How did the audience members act? Do you remember the people that seemed most attentive? Those audience members were displaying traits of ethical listening. An ethical listener is one who actively interprets shared material and analyzes the content and speaker’s effectiveness. Good listeners try to display respect for the speaker. Communicating respect for the speaker occurs when the listener: a] prepares to listen and b] listens with his or her whole body.
“Bored Students” by cybrarian77. CC-BY-NC.
One way you can prepare yourself to listen is to get rid of distractions.[2] If you’ve selected a seat near the radiator and find it hard to hear over the noise, you may want to move before the speaker begins. If you had a fight with your friend before work that morning, you may want to take a moment to collect your thoughts and put the argument out of your mind—so that you can prevent internal distraction during the staff meeting presentation. As a professional, you are aware of the types of things and behaviors that distract you from the speaker; it is your obligation to manage these distractions before the speaker begins.
In order to ethically listen, it’s also imperative to listen with more than just your ears—your critical mind should also be at work. According to Sellnow,[3] two other things you can do to prepare are to avoid prejudging the speaker and refrain from jumping to conclusions while the speaker is talking. Effective listening can only occur when we’re actually attending to the message. Conversely, listening is interrupted when we’re pre-judging the speaker, stereotyping the speaker, or making mental counterarguments to the speaker’s claims. You have the right to disagree with a speaker’s content, but wait until the speaker is finished and has presented his or her whole argument to draw such a conclusion.
Ethical listening doesn’t just take place inside the body. In order to show your attentiveness, it is necessary to consider how your body is listening. A listening posture enhances your ability to receive information and make sense of a message.[4] An attentive listening posture includes sitting up and remaining alert, keeping eye contact with the speaker and his or her visual aid, removing distractions from your area, and taking notes when necessary. Also, if you’re enjoying a particular speaker, it’s helpful to provide positive nonverbal cues like head-nodding, occasional smiling, and eye-contact. These practices can aid you in successful, ethical listening. However, know that listening is sometimes only the first step in this process—many times listeners are asked to provide feedback.
Constructive criticism isabout finding something goodand positive to soften theblow to the real critique ofwhat really went on. –Paula Abdul
Four Types of Listening Styles
Like personality styles, there are also listening styles. We may naturally gravitate to one style as it relates best to us, but sometimes different conversations can require different styles of listening as well. For example, you wouldn’t converse with a patient who’s just received a terminal diagnosis in the same way as an employee who comes to you with a serious allegation against another colleague. Being able to recognise each style of listening and when it is appropriate to use them is an important aspect of ethical and therapeutic listening.
1. Empathetic Listening
Listen with empathy if you truly want to understand what a person means and how they feel. To ‘empathise’ means to feel what someone feels, understand what they mean, and live what they’re living, in a way that respects that it is not actually happening to you, but to them. In a therapeutic situation, empathy is central to the development of the therapeutic relationship and is the factor most likely to enable a person to change.
2. Polite Listening
This style of listening can be used when it is not required of you to either agree or disagree with the speaker – for example, if the speaker 'just needs to vent' and needs someone to listen. Try avoiding interrupting the speaker or changing the topic, and wait until they’ve finished before speaking. Provide supportive listening cues [note: these do not have to infer agreement, but may simply be nodding or saying, 'I see'], show empathy, maintain eye contact, and give positive feedback.
3. Critical Listening
In situations where you must think logically to appraise a situation, it is imperative you listen with an open mind and delay judgments until the end of the speaker’s message. Avoid filtering out complex messages – hear the whole conversation, not just aspects, and listen to what is not being said. Additionally, be aware of highlighting or embellishing one or two smaller aspects of the speaker’s message, and risk missing the big picture. Take note of your own prejudices and biases and do not allow these to enter into the conversation – the speaker’s views and beliefs are their own, and the only preconceptions that matter in this context.
4. Active Listening
Active listening does not just involve repeating back to someone what they’ve said, but constructing a meaningful understanding and sending it back to them. Therefore, a key process in active listening is checking your understanding of their message. Try feeding back what you think you’ve understood their message to be, and ask them to correct you for any misunderstandings.
People have a tendency to downplay, provide reassurance, or put a positive spin on the conversation when they’re actively listening. The listener probably means well, but ultimately, they don’t encourage the person to explore their feelings in more depth. Instead, you’re trying to send them a solution message that tells the speaker how they should feel or what they should do.
Listening Critically
As a student, you are exposed to many kinds of messages. You receive messages conveying academic information, institutional rules, instructions, and warnings; you also receive messages through political discourse, advertisements, gossip, jokes, song lyrics, text messages, invitations, web links, and all manners of communication. You know it’s not all the same, but it isn’t always clear how to separate the truth from the messages that are misleading or even blatantly false. Nor is it always clear which messages are intended to help the listener and which ones are merely self-serving for the speaker. Part of being a good listener is to learn when to use caution in evaluating the messages we hear.
Critical listening in this context means using careful thinking and reasoning to see whether a message makes sense in light of factual evidence.
Critical listening can be learned with practice but is not necessarily easy to do. Some people never learn this skill; instead, they take every message at face value even when those messages are in conflict with their knowledge. Problems occur when messages are repeated to others who have not yet developed the skills to discern the difference between a valid message and a mistaken one. Critical listening can be particularly difficult when the message is complex. Unfortunately, some speakers may make their messages intentionally complex to avoid critical scrutiny. For example, a city treasurer giving a budget presentation might use very large words and technical jargon, which make it difficult for listeners to understand the proposed budget and ask probing questions.
Guidelines for EthicalListening
tags: guidelines to listen, how to be a good listener, tips for ethical listening, ways to be a good listener
Listening is one of the important element in our interaction. We should listen to the people that give their ideas, and give us knowledge and experiences. Listening is also important in our studying especially in study foreign language. There are some rules to guide us in listening so we get the point of our interaction.
First guideline for ethical listening is be polite and attentive. If we listen to the people show nonverbally that we support and encourage the speaker. Try to respect and appreciate the speaker and do not make a noise or have a conversation with others while they speak.
After that, avoid prejudging the speaker is also the rules for ethical listening. While the speaker speak, we must listen first before deciding to accept or reject the speaker’s ideas. It is also important to comment or give our opinion in polite ways.
Then, maintain the free and open expression of ideas is also important tip for ethical listening. We can express our ideas in the modest way and appreciate our friends while they speak. In our life, we must respect each other so we can get harmonization in our enviroment.
In conclusion, there are guidelines for ethical listening such as be polite and attentive, avoid prejudging the speaker, and maintain the free and open expression of ideas. We can apply these tips in our interaction and we will get the point of their speak.
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