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"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
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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
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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).
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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attention, a voice that projects an appropriate tone and
nonverbal actions that match the verbal.
References
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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.
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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
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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.