Listen Up Improving Your Listening Skills'

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Listen Up! Improving Your Listening Skills.

• Texas Association of Counties2008 County
  Management Institute
• Presenter
• Bob Lewis
• The University of
• Texas Professional
• Development Center

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Communication In Teams

• Teams are made up of individuals whose own
  communication behavior can vary widely.
• Couple that with the fact that the basic sending
  and receiving of messages is complicated by
  different perception screens, and nonverbal and
  verbal behaviors.

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Styles of Communication
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How are you listening?

• Empathy is to feel with.
• Sympathy is to feel like.
• Pity is to feel for.

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Intake, Processing, and Output
Preferred Sensory Modality The way you take in
and attend to sensory information
Preferred Thinking Style The way you organize
sensory information in your mind
Preferred Mode of Expression Your predominant way
of expressing and producing sensory information
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Model of Communication
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HIGH SCORES IN PREFERRED SENSORY MODALITY
Visual
preference for charts, graphs, and e-mail
preference for conversations, discussions, and
voice mail messages
Auditory
preference for demonstrations, physical mock-ups,
or actual physical samples
Kinesthetic
PPT18
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PREFERRED THINKING STYLE
Serial Organization of information into detailed,
step-by-step sequences. Characteristics include
attention to detail and focusing on one task.
Parallel Organization of information into more
irregular sequences that are global in nature.
Characteristics include attention to bigger
picture and focusing on several tasks at once.
PPT19
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Six Style Combinations
Visual/Serial
Auditory/Parallel
Visual/Parallel
Kinesthetic/Serial
Auditory/Serial
Kinesthetic/Parallel
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Learning to Listen
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What are the Roadblocks to Effective Listening?
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Roadblocks to Effective Listening

• warning 
• interrogating 
• preaching
• ordering
• judging 
• diverting
• analyzing
• blaming
• labeling 
• moralizing
• ridiculing
• threatening 

• reassuring 
• distracting 
• sympathizing 
• demanding 
• interpreting 
• teaching 
• withdrawing
• giving solutions 
• advising
• criticizing 
• directing 
• lecturing 

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The Listening Model

• Invisible Visible
• Staying Focused
• Capturing the Message
• Helping
  the Speaker

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Staying Focused

• What it means
• Staying Focused is about consciously clearing the
  mental space in which to listen and then keeping
  ones full attention centered on the
  speakerdespite tempting distractions.

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Staying Focused

• How to do it
• Prepare Clear your mind
• Monitor Recognize when your concentration has
  strayed
• Correct Refocus your mental attention on the
  speaker

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Capturing the Message

• What It Means
• Capturing the Message is about a complete and
  accurate understanding of the speakers message.

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Capturing the Message

• How to do it
• Be open-minded Let go of your assumptions,
  biases, and expectations
• Think Mentally interact with the speakers
  ideas or information
• Clarify Ask questions to get more information
  and settle points that arent clear
• Confirm Offer summaries to check your
  understanding

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Helping the Speaker

• What it Means
• Helping the Speaker is about listening to the
  speaker in the manner that you would like to be
  listened to.

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Helping the Speaker

• How to Do It
• Screen Avoid distracting verbal comments
• Control Yourself Avoid distracting nonverbal
  actions
• Respond Offer verbal encouragement
• Assist Offer nonverbal support

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Action Plan

• What are the gaps I need to manage?
• How can I use my strengths to help other team
  members?
• How can I change and adapt my style of listening?

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Thanks for participating today!

• In the meantime, continue practicing the art of
  listening.