Executive Summary - Overview

Listening is a widely used process, but difficult to implement because it is taken for granted. Listening is not only hearing, it is in fact an important communication skill involving understanding what we hear on a continuous basis.

Why is listening so complicated? First, when people talk, many barriers ( noisy surroundings, listener's lack of interest, listener's fatigue, etc...) prevent  listeners to actually listen. Second, listening may seem complex because it involves 5 steps: hearing, attending, understanding, responding and remembering.

For people who actually listen, they can do so in 3 ways:  
- Actively: where the listener understands what the speaker say
- Critically: where the listener judges the information
- Contently: where the listener understands and retain the information.

Others important aspects to take into consideration for ensuring successful listening are cultural and gender differences. Concerning culture, what is considered as being acceptable for one society is not necessarily seen as being acceptable in another one. Moreover, because men and women don’t listen for the same purposes, effective screening is necessary in order to prevent situational conflicts.

Although there are more and more new ways to communicate, verbal communication is still very important whether in the workplace (for employees, bosses and customers); or in an educational environment (for both teachers and students).

Due to his very high value in the communication process, listening mainly relies on listeners who can improve their listening skills based on the situation (daily activities, workplace and school).

Overall, the importance of listening effectively rests in the many benefits people gain by doing so; mostly, they get to expand their knowledge, competency and skill and on another hand build profitable relationships in business. In few words, it enhances human abilities and open doors to great success. Learning how to listen is not only a useful aspect but a necessity.