Career Solutions Training Group Free E-Lessons

This week's activity is taken from

Top 10 Tips for Workplace Readiness, CD IV.

CD I: The Job Search
CD II: Employability Skills
CD III: Business Skills
CD IV: Communicating Effectively
CD V: Business Etiquette

 

Information about the complete Top 10 Tips for Work Readiness line of products follows this week's lesson.

 

Top 10 Tips for Developing a Listening Attitude

1. Check out your overall attitude.

Your attitude can have an effect on your ability to listen. If you think negatively, you will listen negatively, and if you think positively, you will listen positively.

When you find a negative attitude affecting your ability to listen, try these suggestions:

—Analyze why you have a negative attitude. Decide whether external or internal influences are affecting your attitude. For example, are you pressured by time because you have too much to do, or are you still stewing over something that happened at home before work?

—Correct the things you can do something about and stop worrying about the others. For example, can someone else pick up a few of your tasks that make you overworked?

2. Understand yourself.

Some people are natural listeners, and others are not. Natural listeners consider listening an important activity, something they enjoy doing. If you are not a natural listener, you will have to work a little harder to develop a listening attitude. Natural listeners seem to be able to put everything out of their minds except what the speaker is saying. They focus totally on the speakers, as if no one else were around.

Do you know whether you are a natural listener? Try listening in the following situations and evaluate whether listening is something you like or whether it is a drag.

—Friends or family conversations.

—A class discussion.

—A conversation with a co-worker.

3. Recognize the importance of listening.

Becoming a better listener takes time and energy; and in the rush of day-to-day events, many people don’t devote the necessary time to listening. Usually, this is because they don’t understand the difference between hearing and listening.

Look at the differences in listening and hearing in this example where one coworker speaks to another.

—“I won’t be at work tomorrow because of a personal problem.”

Hearing: The person who only hears may pick up on one part of this message, “won’t be at work tomorrow.”

Listener: A good listener will consider the speaker’s tone, volume, facial expression, and body language to determine what part “personal problem” plays in the conversation. Is the speaker hinting at something that is left unsaid?

4. Consider the consequences of not listening.

Losing customers, making mistakes, and costing the company money because of redos are some of the consequences of not listening. If you make mistakes because you don’t listen, your boss and co-workers will begin to wonder about your abilities each time you are given an important assignment.

How would you feel in the following situations?

—Admitting to your boss that a customer left because you were preoccupied with something else, and the customer thought you were not interested in his problem.

—Having $200 deducted from your paycheck for parts or supplies you ruined because you didn’t listen.

Top 10 Tips for Developing a Listening Attitude

Do you have a listening attitude? You can judge for yourself by doing a short self test.

1. I like to listen more than I like to talk.                            Yes     No

2. I think listening is easy to do.                                        Yes     No

3. I enjoy hearing what others have to say.                          Yes     No

4. I like to focus on other people more than on myself.         Yes     No

5. I am able to sit still and listen.                                       Yes     No

If you answered “Yes” to all of the above statements, you have an attitude of listening. If you answered “No” to more than one question, you need to work on your listening attitude.