Teaching Listening Skills

training tips needed

training tips needed

Teaching listening skills is part of a training programme I plan to deliver with a group of managers. What is the best way to handle this?

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Teaching Listening Skills

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Idea for a practice session
by:

Ann



Teaching listening skills has to involve practice, so that the learners experience the result from practising good listening skills.

Start the session with a discussion on what makes a good listener. Have them think about the people they naturally gravitate towards (both in their personal and work lives) when they have a problem and they need someone to listen.

What are the traits these people possess? You can flipchart findings. Common traits are: confidential, non-judgemental, have similar experiences to draw from, sincere and understanding.

When teaching listening skills, cover good questions to ask and statements to use which build empathy. Explain the importance of body language - particularly eye contact, facial gestures and an open posture.

Then put the group into triads. Person A has to express a point of view or problem they feel comfortable discussing, person B has to practice active listening, and person C has to observe and give feedback.

Allow 10 minutes for the discussion and 5 minutes for the feedback. Then have the triad swop roles, until everyone has had a chance to practice active listening.

The group work will take 45 minutes to complete, after which you can bring the group together and discuss key learning points.
Listening Skills
by: Marian Thier

HI:

I write a blog on listening for business (www.xtho.com/blog)and have developed an instrument, Hear! Hear? Your Listening Portfolio, that assesses people's listening habits and how they impact them at work. I offer a 2-part webinar, "The Fluent Listener", as well as The Fluent Listener workshop.

You might want to become certified as a practitioner to use Hear! Hear?. Just administering it to managers and helping them understand what they listen to and what they ignore, is eye-opening. Then you can work with them on becoming more fluent as a listener, that is adapting the listening to the situation.

If you 'd like to know more, I can be reached at mjthier@xtho.com

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