Impact of Communication on Listening

Communication is very important for all beings. Animals and humans, use their own
different languages to communicate with one another. This is because no one can survive
without communicating. Communication is the vital tools in creating and maintaining a
relationship, whether it be an intimate relationship such as with partner, child, friends,
professional relationship or students. Communication process refers to the exchange of
thoughts and ideas with the intention of conveying information. It is a part of spoken and
written language. These are the essential factors, which complete the communication
process among people around the world. Previous research stated that 80 percent of the
average person’s working hours is spent communication in one form or another (Steil,
1980).

However, communication process is about people speaking and listening. Listening to

others, as well as understanding others is essential. It is often said that listening is the first
language skill one develops, and as a result all cognitive skills are dependent on the ability
to listen (Cialdini, 2008). 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). Today, we hear and use many proverbs
about this wisdom. Still another question: What guided your listening? Individuals who hear
the same speech often walk away with different impressions of what they heard. When you
are speaking and someone is not paying attention, how do you feel? Annoyed, frustrated,
discounted, rejected anxious or angry? Such feelings usually make communication more
difficult. So how can we show someone who is speaking that we really are paying attention
to them? We can do this both nonverbally and verbally. When communicating with others,
we often focus on what we should say. Therefore, in this study we try to look on how the
communication gives impact on listening in individual aspect.

The first impact of communication on listening is building up the understanding

between two sides of a conversation. In this context, the relationship between
communication and listening are very important in order to create the effective
communication between two people. Both of these elements when it comes together leads
to better understanding besides increases the productivity of conversation. Communication
works when it occurs two ways and with mutual respect. Having your words be understood
and receiving positive feedback from the audience is satisfying the both side of a
conversation.
 Moreover, according to Sonya Hamlin (2006) the author of "How to Talk So People
Listen," the world is composed of various personality types, all of which affect how a person
will listen. Another aspect that affects how someone listens is age. A person's generation will
impact how the individual accesses their news, tackles work or perceives time. For example,
Baby Boomers, those born during the middle part of the 20th Century, may be more likely to
read a paper to receive their news. On the other hand, Generation Xers, those born between
1961 and 1981, may tune into their favourite cable news network and those labelled
Generation Y, those born after Generation X, may receive a constant stream of information
via their smart phones. We must be aware that factors such as our age may affect our
listening skills.

However, effective communication is less about talking and more about listening.
Listening well means not just understanding the words or the information being
communicated, but also understanding the emotions the speaker is trying to communicate.
There is a big difference between engaged listening and simply hearing. When you really
listen and when you’re engaged with what is being said, you will hear the subtle intonations
in someone’s voice that tell you how that person is feeling and the emotions they are trying
to communicate. When you are an engaged listener, not only will you better understand the
other person, you’ll also make that person feel heard and understood, which can help build
a stronger, deeper connection between you and another people.

Furthermore, active listening is becoming more difficult in a multitasking world where

we are simultaneously engaged in many conversations over various mediums. The next
impact of communication on listening is it will improve the level of sensitivity. Even when
beginning to listen more closely to your partner or people around us, we may notice subtle
social and body language cues that we haven't notices before. Vocal intonation and word
choice might start to give off stronger signals that people needs communication with us. As
security professionals, how can we ensure that we are receptive enough to other people’s
attempts to communicate? According to research in the book of “The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People”, researcher Rick van Baaren discovered that a waiter’s tip increased when
the waiter repeated exactly what the customer had ordered, instead of just saying "okay" or
"coming up." Van Baaren believes that restating the request strengthens the bond of
communication. Leaders must listen to others’ viewpoints. Based on van Baaren's finding, it
is also worth taking the time to restate the other parties’ opinions in an effort to foster
effective communication (Covey, 2004).
 The last impact of communication on listening is it will develop more empathy among
people. In order to relate to others whether personally or professionally, it is important to be
able to put yourself into their shoes. Empathy is a skill of feeling what another person is
feeling as they share an experience through communication and using the skill of empathy
to express understanding and care for another person. With complete of listening skill
comes a level of understanding that helps you realize the thought processes behind yourself
more inclined to step into another person’s shoes as you continues to learn how to listen
deeply. To compensate for these natural responses and promote more empathetic listening,
Covey (2004) states that you must incorporate additional steps into the listening process.
Like van Baaren, Covey’s first step is to mimic the content. This is a basic step that will force
you to listen as you restate the other person’s message. But, Covey’s second step is to
repeat the communication in the listener’s own words. His third stage is to reflect the other
person’s feelings. The last stage is to both rephrase the content and reflect on the feeling.
Covey’s also stated that listening is a complicated skill and it s very important to first seek to
understand before attempting to persuade. In the communication process, one must always
be willing to listen. It is best to be that leader who always ensures that proactive listening
occurs.

The Last impact of communication on listening is creates emotional awareness

among people. Emotional awareness is a skill that required patience and practice. We can
develop emotional awareness by learning how to deal with difficult emotions and manage
uncomfortable feelings, including anger, sadness, fear and joy. In the context of listening, if
we want to be an effective communicator, we need to practice observing people and listen
carefully on what they want to say. Patience is another important service skill, let the
speaker communicate at their own pace. In this case, some people take longer to construct
their sentences, do not interrupt or finish sentences for people when they speak or you’d
risk jumping to the wrong conclusion, instead encourage the person to speak with nods and
gestures. Besides that, try as much as possible to avoid getting irritated by the speaker’s
accent, speech pace, mannerism or habit that might distract you from essence of the
message being communicated.

In conclusion, good communication is like stimulating black coffee, and just as hard
to sleep after. Therefore, it is essential to actively listen to others and to ensure that our
own message is clear and persuasive, regardless of the medium. A combination of both
listening and speaking skills is a rare occurrence, but it is not out of the realm of possibility.
With enough practice and time, we can learn to adapt to many styles of speaking and
improve our skills as a good listener and proficient communicator. Great communicators are
great listeners too. Listening is a vital component in communication and in interpersonal
communication because it helps us know others. This requires effort, openness and a
willingness to change a few unhealthy habits with new ones. It is self-evident that by
developing a daily practice can benefit increasing the chances of becoming likeable,
loveable, friendly and agreeable, and these are all qualities I value and consider worth
changing for.

Impact of Communication on Understanding

Though effective communication is important, it is not the main objective. According to Mark
(2006), a bestselling author and noted authority on leadership and team building, the
objective is to achieve understanding. Sanborn believes that the word “communication” is an
amorphous term that is not adequately understood. However, communication barriers can
pop-up at every stage of communication process which consists of sender, message,
channel, receiver, feedback and context. To be an effective communicator and to get your
point across without misunderstanding and confusion, our goal should be to lessen the
frequency of these barriers at each stage of that process with clear, concise, accurate, well-
planned communications. Barriers in context tend to stem from senders offering too much
information too fast.

The impact of communication on understanding is making a point on developing

culture’s awareness among people. Gaining awareness of other culture’s style of
communication is an important skill to acquire, and one that feed into all the other skills.
Especially in regard to perception and assumptions, working to ask questions about another
person’s culture can help broaden our own perspectives. For instance a person may not
make eye contact and you may have past experiences that lead you to form a perception of
that person as timid and lacking confidence. However, being able to take a step back to get
to know that person’s culture, not only establishes rapport through empathy and active
listening, but also allows you to avoid wrong assumptions. It may be that person is from a
culture that views direct eye contact as disrespectful, so in fact his or her lack of eye contact
is his or her attempt to demonstrate respect. Then, it is very essential to understand the
other’s people culture in making conversation. When we communicate better, we
understand better.

The second impact of communication on understanding is we perceive in the

present. Every human being perceives situations. Perception involves the use of the senses,
along with non verbal cues and the prior knowledge of a person or situation. A person
perceived him or herself in a certain light depending on his or her past. Additionally, a
person perceives others based on experiences with other people. As a result, people will
develop schemas that can lead a person to predict what happen in the future.

Another essential communication skill is the ability to consider the impact that your
message will have on the other person. The effective communication gives a great impact
on understanding. For example when we seek first to understand our audience, we will be
able to tailor message for them. We have to think twice about the key points and make sure
that we are always conveying message in the most positive tone possible. Where bad news
has to be delivered, consider how we might be able to help people to deal with the impact.

Meanwhile, in education context a teacher, who is able to communicate well with

students, can inspire them to learn and participate in class. This is also the impact of good
communication skill on understanding in individual aspect. Workplace communication can be
improved by participating in a facilitated workshop. A workshop facilitator needs to be able
to communicate. Without effective communication, even the goal of workshop facilitation
cannot be realized. The facilitator needs to be able to identity dormant participants and
encourage them to come forth with their views without seeming overly patronizing. All this
is impossible unless the facilitator has astounding communication abilities coupled with a
natural empathy towards fellow beings.

Communication skills are a required for maintaining relationships also. This is include
friends and relatives, good communication skills are needed to avoid confusion, miss-
communication, and fights and so on. Therefore, effective communication skills are very
important, for sustaining in the society. Most people judge another person on the basis of
his or her body language and form an opinion based on their perception. Hence, effective
communication skills are as important to humans as, growling is to a dog, to communicate
and express himself. What the spoken language fails to express, that is easily expressed
with certain hand and facial gestures.

Another impact of communication on understanding is in gaining knowledge,

interacting with other communities, and provides entertainment. The various forms of
entertainment through communication are: novels, newspapers, bulletins, online
interactions, watching TV, talk shows, etc. When communication channels in a team are
properly established and information flows easily between teammates, then that increases
the ability of staff members to interact, according to the Management Skills Advisor website.
Team members learn how to interact more efficiently with each other to perform their job
duties, and they are better able to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each
teammate.

Furthermore, analyse every aspect of our message in terms of how it affects the
receiver. Make the message all about them because that is what they are interested in. You
would not attempt to sell somebody a car by explaining how you will benefit from the sales
commission. This same approach applies to all communication. The more a person
understood knows when to lead and when to follow. This communication skill follows closely
to conflict resolution because it is a skill, which you are working to read the other person’s
mind. The essential component of understanding is when you should take charge in a
conversation or let the other person lead. This is very complex skill to acquire and requires
continued growth in one-self awareness as to one strength and weakness. As leaders, our
goal is to foster understanding, and our primary tool is to achieve understanding through
effective communication. He also added that the effective communication allows participants
to properly exchange ideas. The more you feel your thoughts are understood, the more
willing you be listen to the words or another. Banerji & Dayal (2005) stated that
communication is a process that contains expressing, listening and understanding.
Therefore, it shows clearly that the two way communication which is listening to one
another leads to the better understanding between people and increases productivity of
conversation, which is the true definition of effective communication.

Communication influences our thinking about our self and others. You share meaning
in what you say and how you say it, both in oral and written forms. If you could not
communicate, what would life be like? A series of never-ending frustrations? Not being able
to ask for what you need or even to understand the needs of others? Being unable to
communicate might even mean losing a part of yourself, for you communicate your self-
concept—your sense of self and awareness of who you are—in many ways. Do you like to
write? Do you find it easy to make a phone call to a stranger or to speak to a room full of
people? Perhaps someone told you that you don’t speak clearly or your grammar needs
improvement. Does that make you more or less likely to want to communicate? For some, it
may be a positive challenge, while for others it may be discouraging. After all in all cases,
your ability to communicate is central to your self-concept.

There are several ways, through which a person, can enhance our communication
skills. People require these extra methods, to grow and improve their existing language.
Some techniques are that, People can attend workshops, or they can read about the topic.
Certain authors have come up with self-help books, which make the task of understanding
the concept very simple. This will allow them to improve their written language and
communication skills.