Hearing is an effortless activity while listening is an act requiring conscious efforts, concentration and interest. Listening involves both physical and psychological efforts. Effective listening requires both deliberate efforts and a keen mind. Effective listeners appreciate flow of new ideas and information. Organizations that follow the principles of effective listening are always informed timely, updated with the changes and implementations, and are always out of crisis situation. Effective listening promotes organizational relationships, encourages product delivery and innovation, as well as helps organization to deal with the diversity in employees and customers it serves. To improve your communication skills, you must learn to listen effectively. Effective listening gives you an advantage and makes you more impressive when you speak. It also boosts your performance. Effective Listening Skills. Discover your interests field. Grasp and understand the mattercontent. Remain calm. Do not loose your temper. Learn about interpersonal listening skills in this topic from the Free Management Library. In todays hightech, highspeed, highstress world, communication is more important then ever, yet we seem to devote less and less time to really. Undivided Attention. Open communication through active listening is the keystone of good health care. Active listening is a therapeutic technique that establishes. How To Be A Good Active Listener Skills' title='How To Be A Good Active Listener Skills' />Anger hampers and inhibits communication. Angry people jam their minds to the words of others. Be open to accept new ideas and information. Jot down and take a note of important points. Work upon listening. Analyze and evaluate the speech in spare time. Rephrase and summarize the speakers ideas. Keep on asking questions. This demonstrates that how well you understand the speakers ideas and also that you are listening. Avoid distractions. Step into the shoes of others, i. This will help creating an atmosphere of mutual understanding and improve the exchange of ideas in communication process. Characteristics of Good and Effective Listener. Good and effective listener tries to give maximum amount of thought to the speakers ideas being communicated, leaving a minimum amount of time for mental exercises to go off track. A good listener Is attentive Good listener must pay attention to the key points. He should be alert. He should avoid any kind of distraction. Do not assume Good listener does not ignore the information he considers is unnecessary. He should always summarize the speakers ideas so that there is no misunderstanding of thoughts of speakers. He avoids premature judgements about the speakers message. Listen for feelings and facts Good listener deliberately listens for the feelings of the speaker. He concentrates totally on the facts. He evaluates the facts objectively. His listening is sympathetic, active and alert. He keenly observes the gestures, facial expression and body language of the speaker. In short, a good listener should be projective i. Concentrate on the other speakers kindly and generously A good listener makes deliberate efforts to give a chance to other speakers also to express their thoughts and views. He tries to learn from every speaker. He evaluates the speakers ideas in spare time. He focuses on the content of the speakers message and not on the speakers personality and looks. Opportunizes A good listener tries to take benefit from the opportunities arising. He asks Whats in it for me. To conclude, effective listening enhances the communication quality. It makes all attentive. It encourages optimistic attitude, healthy relations and more participation. It leads to better decision making in an organization. Effective listening is directly related to our ability to do team work. It must be noted that We listen at about an efficiency rate of 2. AuthorshipReferencing About the Authors.