LISTENING 1

Listening

LISTENING 2

"The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people."

— Woodrow Wilson (28th President of the United States)

Listening, a simple words comprising of just nine letter. This

words has been used 49 times in the Holy Scripture, and is

symbolic of divine completeness, its true meaning is finality.

Moses listened to the voice of God and obeyed Him, but the Lord

also said Pharaoh will not listen to you. And it happened just

like that, Pharaoh did not listen and was doomed. This shows that

listening has two angles, one is when one listens to the good

things being said, and the other is not listening to it.

Listening is a make or break factor.

The Greek philosopher Epictetus may have been the first person to

notice that humans were created with two ears, but only one

tongue, so that humans may listen twice as much as they speak

(King, 2008, p. 2718).In an article published in the

LISTENING 3

Huffingtonpost the famous listening expert Paul Sacco, Ph.D., of

the University of Maryland School of Social Work says that "It

all just depends on the ability and desire to be mindful of where

you are and who you're talking to. A lot of us are focused on the

mechanics of listening, eye contact, nodding your head but for

good listeners, there's a naturalness to that behavior that we

should all aspire to."

(Posted: 08/14/2014 8:36 am EDT:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/14/habits-of-good-

listeners_n_5668590.html)

Rankin (1926/1952) investigated the frequency of use of listening

in the ordinary lives of adults and found that adults spent 42.1

percent of their total verbal communication time in listening

while they spent 31.9 percent , 15 percent, and 11 percent of

their verbal communication time speaking, reading, and writing.

In addition to grammatical competence, listeners also rely on

other types of knowledge as they perform a listening

comprehension process. One is sociocultural competence, which is

the listeners' degree of familiarity with the sociocultural

LISTENING 4

content of the message and knowledge of the social as well as

cultural expectations of native speakers of the language. Another

is strategic competence, which is listeners' ability to guess

meanings of unfamiliar words heard and to use strategies to

compensate for their missing knowledge.

To sum up listening is an active process of attaching meaning to

the speech sounds. As a listener performs a variety of tasks in a

comprehension process, he or she has to rely upon various types

of knowledge such as grammatical knowledge and sociocultural

understanding. Researchers have outlined the differences between

the spoken language and the written language. These following

differences also offer insights into the nature of listening and

reading tasks.

1. Written language usually appears in a sentence while spoken

discourse is generally delivered as a clause at a time (Richards,

1983).

2. Written language tends to be planned and organized while

spoken discourse is generally not planned and not well-organized

(Richards, 1983).

LISTENING 5

Clearly, the general purpose of listening is to comprehend a

message (Chastain, 1979; Lund, 1990). Since the listener must

understand the message as it is presented, effective listening

requires the ability to organize and remember what is presented.

Listening then involves giving conscious attention to the sounds

for the purpose of gaining meaning.

Leadership through Listening

Leadership is about interactions through communication,

relationship development with others. Listening is an important

behavior; however, it should also be considered a leadership

quality. Both servant leadership and transformational leadership

seek to earn respect and trust by developing relationships, and

relationships develop though shared dialogue. Research has

focused on developing listening as a skill required for effective

leadership. De Pree (2004) states “a leader’s most trusted and

familiar tools are communication skills” (p. 104). Hackman and

LISTENING 6

Johnson (1994) indicate “leadership competence is the product of

communication competence” (p. 50).

Communication scholars cannot agree on a single definition for

listening, though, there are similar elements scholars agree

should be included in this definition. These five elements

include perception, attention, interpretation, remembering and

responding. These common elements have been a part of the

definition of listening for over 60 years (Janusik, 2010, p.

204). Since listening occurs in different settings, a single

definition for listening is inadequate. For example, listening in

a conversation will require a response; however when listening to

a television program, no response is required. The key to

defining listening is to take the time to think and create a

personal definition of listening (Steil & Bommelje, 2004, pp. 30-

31).

Types of Listening

LISTENING 7

Two types of listening are foundational, discriminate and

comprehensive. Listening discriminatively can be aural or visual

and is basic to any other type of listening. This allows a

listener to perceive and identify sounds in the environment and

then use these sounds to adapt to the environment (Wolvin, 2009,

p. 142; Wolvin & Coakley, 1996, pp. 158-160). Listening

comprehensively is listening for the understanding of the message

and its variables including memory, concentration and vocabulary

(Wolvin, p. 142; Wolvin & Coakley, pp. 211-230). The third type

of listening is therapeutic listening and scholars indicate

everyone has a need for this type of listener at some point in

his or her life. Specific skills for this empathic form of

listening include giving attention, being present, demonstrating

eye contact, facial expression, touching, silence and

demonstrating empathy

Listening Process

Critical listening is listening to comprehend and evaluate the

message. This stage is often used in leadership and includes a

LISTENING 8

component of judgment (Wolvin & Coakley, 1996, p. 320) and

reasoning (Caputo, Hazel, McMahon, & Dannels, 2002). Critical

listening is used in leadership as these skills appear to sharpen

with maturity, while determining acceptance or rejection of a

message. It is important to be reminded that critical does not

mean negative, but rather is defined by the purpose and goals of

listening. The listening leader needs to connect to what was

heard and experienced, while searching for the value it has in

life.

Listening, as part of the social penetration theory, implies that

a conscious effort be made about who, what, when, why and how

listening can be achieved (Barker & Watson, 2000, p. 70;

Brownell, 2010a, p. 5-8; Imhof, 2010, p. 100). For example, when

an employee is working in his/her office with the radio playing

in the background, it is usually not considered to be

interference. However, occasionally something piques the person’s

attention on the radio, such as an update on the pending weather

advisory, which interrupts concentration in regards to the

LISTENING 9

current task. At this point, listening becomes a deliberate

decision.

Human Brain and Schemas

While listening, not only is attending important; so is

perception. Cognitive psychologists include the schema theory

when processing information (Wolvin, 2010b, pp. 13-14). The

schemata in a brain are mental representations of knowledge.

Schemas are ways of organizing information in a brain to allow

the interpretation and remembering of information. Schemas aid

the listening process and are constantly changing and/or being

modified depending on experiences, cultures and background.

Schemas make sense of new and incoming information and assist in

identifying information that should be stored or forgotten

(Brownell, 2010a, p. 338; Wolvin & Coakley, 1996, pp. 90-91;

Worthington & Fitch-Hauser, 2012, pp. 55-56). The schemata stored

in long term memory, aids recalling information. Schema creates

cognitive structure; however, listening researchers have

discovered that those with a more complex schema have greater

LISTENING 10

listening memory (Wolvin & Coakley, pp.90-91). Janusik (2005)

posits that the mind has the capabilities for attention and

memory; what isn’t used for attention is available for memory

(pp. 16-17). As a result, as schema is built, there is more

availability for storage which ultimately aids memory.

Behavioral Dimension of Listening

Behaviors are often used to perceive effectiveness of one’s

listening. The behavioral aspect of listening indicates a

listener will control the amount of information received, process

it via cognitive and schemata influences, and ultimately have the

last words regarding the message. By understanding the listening

process, the goal of shared meaning will have a greater

possibility of achievement. After listening, effective speaking

occurs through learned and improved behaviors. (Brownell, 2008,

p. 214; Brownell, 2010b, pp. 142-143). This aspect will impact

the leadership of a listener. Listening is most effective when it

is considered to be a connection to others, circular in nature, a

give-and-take relationship. Through listening, relationships

LISTENING 11

develop, feedback is offered and leaders are formed. Leadership

Just as communication is about people, so too is leadership.

Barge (1994) posits that leadership is best explained by

communication skills. Effective leaders understand that listening

and leading are inseparable (Steil & Bommelje, 2004).

Listening traits of Corporate Leaders

Writing in the Forbes, Mike Myatt states 'Want to become a better

leader? Stop talking and start listening. Being a leader should

not be viewed as a license to increase the volume of rhetoric.

Rather astute leaders know there is far more to be gained by

surrendering the floor than by dominating it. Show me a leader

who doesn’t recognize the value of listening to others and I’ll

show you a train-wreck in the making…' (Forbes FEB 10, 2012:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/02/09/why-most-

leaders-need-to-shut-up-listen/)

A great leader should also be a great communicator and this is

the reason we do not come across great leaders more often. Often

LISTENING 12

most leaders fail to understand that the effective communication

is not just conveying message, but engaging, and for this

listening is required. Being heard is useless without hearing.

Communication means to understand before wishing to be

understood. When someone amongst us arrives at point in his life

when he begins to understand that wisdom does not come from lip

flapping but by removing his ear wax, then he has turned a

skilled communicator.

LISTENING 13

Active listening is all about putting your own concerns,

attitudes, and concepts to one side as you listen. If such

distractions are not present then you can discern the true

meaning behind spoken words.

Leaders have to listen to their peers, stakeholders, friends,

competitors, customers, seniors and juniors, subordinates and

last but not the least, the members of family. Even using Tweets

or messages on Facebook or LinkedIn, it is better not to push out

but to elicit feedback this helps in becoming popular with anyone

you interact with.

You must have been a part of some board meeting and encountered

the smartest fellow in the conference hall. Who was that fellow?

Think and you will get the answer, because it was not the fellow

who was doing all the talking but the one who just intervened

with a few engaging questions and then kept listening. Leaders

listen to their personnel and build on their suggestions. They

have the ability to draw out the best in their subordinates and

then add to it. Axley (1996), once asked thousands of managers

during a fifteen year period, can you tell me the percentage of

LISTENING 14

your job activities which involves communicating or communication

of some sort? His finding were that only rarely does anyone

report that less than the majority of their time is spent in

communication activities. That is strong testimony to the

importance of listening in leaders.

By making use of this technique you motivate the other person to

speak without being interrupted and thus builds a rapport between

you and the other party. At the same time it should be remembered

that Eye contact is important in the listening setting, according

to 80 percent of the respondents; however, 16 percent definitely

disagreed. Since no record of ethnicity was asked, this could

represent the cultural diversity regarding eye contact. Similarly

facial expressions are important in nonverbal communication, and

so too is body movement and gestures. One’s words and behaviors

need to reflect congruency. A response that demonstrates

LISTENING 15

attention, a voice that projects an appropriate tone and

nonverbal actions that match the verbal.

References

LISTENING 16

Barker, L., & Watson, K. (2000). Listen up. New York: St.

Martin’s Press.

Brownell, J. (2010a). Listening: Attitudes, principles, and

skills (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Caputo, J. S.; Hazel, H. C.; McMahon, C.; & Dannels, D. (2002).

Communicating effectively: Linking thought and expression.

Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt.

Chastain, K. D. (1979). Testing listening comprehension tests.

TESOL Quarterly, 13, 81- 88.

De Pree, M. (2004). Leadership is an art. New York: Doubleday

Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (1994). Teaching leadership from

a communication perspective. Journal of NW Communication

Association, 22, 48-64.

LISTENING 17

Imhof, M. (2010). What is going on in the mind of a listener? The

cognitive psychology of listening. In A. D. Wolvin (Ed.),

Listening and human communication in the 21st century (pp. 193-

224). Oxford: Blackwell

Janusik, L. A. (2005, April). Teaching listening: A research

based approach. Paper presented at the annual conference of the

International Listening Association, Minneapolis, MN.

Janusik, L. A. (2010). Listening pedagogy: Where do we go from

here? In A. D. Wolvin (Ed.), Listening and human communication in

the 21st century (pp. 193-224). Oxford: Blackwell.

King, P. E. (2008). Listening. The International Encyclopedia of

Communication (Vol. 6, pp. 2718-2722). Malden, MA: Blackwell

Publishers, Inc.

Lund, R. J. (1990). A taxonomy for teaching second language

listening. Foreign Language Annals, 23, 105-115.

LISTENING 18

Rankin, P. T. (1952). The measurement of the ability to

understand spoken language (Doctoral dissertation, University of

Michigan, 1926). Dissertation

Abstracts, 12,847-848

Richards, J. C. (1983). Listening comprehension: Approach,

design, procedure. TESOL Quarterly, 17, 219-240.

Steil, L. K., & Bommelje, R. K. (2004). Listening leaders: The

ten golden rules to listen, lead and succeed. Edina, MN: Beaver’s

Pond Press, Inc

Wolvin, A. D. (2009). Listening, understanding and

misunderstanding. In W. F. Eadie (Ed), 21st Century Communication

(pp. 137-146). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Wolvin, A. D. (2010a). “Listening.” Political and Civic

Leadership. 2010. Sage Publications.

LISTENING 19

Wolvin, A., & Coakley, C. G. (1996). Listening (5th ed.).

Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown Publishers.