Welcome, today we are going to look at listening and see two aspects of listening, one passive listening and two active listening. So let me start with an example, let's imagine it's Sunday morning, late morning around 11 a.m. you are up and busy with your phone, catching up on Instagram with friends or watching some YouTube videos, completely lost in your world and your mother comes by saying, How many times did I tell you, Harish, clean up your room, it's Sunday morning.
And you look up at your mother, all lost, back to your phone. All those many times that she had said before, you probably never heard it at all. And even that one time, you are half hearing what she's saying. Well, maybe it's not you, it's a situation in a friend's house but this would be a very good example of passive listening or in fact it's an example of pretty much minus listening.
Let's imagine another scenario where you are at your workplace or your place of study, it's break time, coffee time, whatever and you're catching up with your colleague or your friend And your friend is sharing about his or her first date, how would you be listening then? Just imagine your body language, your eye contact, maybe you would be asking questions in between and then you know questions to prod the person to go on or for clarifications whatever. That would certainly be a very good example of active listening.
Once again I'm not saying this is true for all of us but these are situations that either we can personally relate to or we know of others who have been in similar situations. The reason I chose an example which is out of the classroom context is because both these situations have emotions attached to them and that is what we are going to see. and we are going to analyze with respect to passive listening and active listening.
Whether it is in the classroom or whether it is at a training session at your workplace or anywhere else. Passive listening certainly has its space. We are never saying for once that passive listening implies dull, completely disinterested, unbothered.
Some situations might actually require a little bit of passive listening. Let's say for example, you are at a conference and there are about 600 people and someone comes on to the days and starts making an announcement that is specifically for the people from the state of Maharashtra who have come to the conference. So the rest of whatever is being spoken is mostly insignificant for you.
You can afford to let it reach your ear and pass. In some situations, passive listening is fine. In some situations, certain aspects of active listening are actually not supposed to be there in certain kinds of passive listening.
For example, let's say that you are at a very official function and there are government dignitaries and officials up there. and somebody is giving a formal speech. That's not a point where you need to nod your head and say, oh yes, oh yes, I agree, oh come on, is that it? You are expected to receive and that's your task there.
Be a passive recipient and listen. So passive listening does have its space, does have its scope, however. When we come in the context of many situations such as a learning environment of a classroom or a training or an interaction in sales or marketing between a client and a customer, between a leader and the team, active listening can play an extremely significant role in more ways than one. What do we mean then by active listening? If you go back to the example we started with, when a friend is telling you about the first date.
You're not going to be half interested, lost in your own thoughts, sort of listening, sort of not. You're going to be physically present here and now, isn't it? You're going to have eye contact when you're listening to that person.
Oh okay and then what happened? You are going to be conveying the fact that you are listening. that you are involved in different ways. By different ways I mean perhaps with a nod of your head or some other expressions of your face. Your body language is going to convey your listening, maybe you might go like this if it's an informal setting.
In different ways you are conveying that you are listening. Second, you are taking an active interest. in whatever it is that you're listening to and the way you show that is perhaps by saying words like hmm really ah okay and then and then what happened statements like these which come with a question mark are very beautiful indicators of active listening because you really are telling the other person, not only am I listening to you, I want to know more of what you wish to say.
Similarly, in a formal context of let us say, a classroom, training, an interaction between the client and customer, if one carries A body language of being involved, a presence which shows that I am here to listen to you, what you say matters, I value it, I want to know more. We can convey all of this just by the way we sit, by the way we make eye contact and look at the person, by the honesty and integrity with which we involve ourselves. in their story, in their narration, in whatever it is that they are sharing. They say that being a lifelong learner is a quality that really takes leaders forward. Being a lifelong learner is also connected with active listening.
And how is that? Because if you are a lifelong learner, not only from books, not only from courses, not only from libraries. Every situation, every person, every context that you are engaged with and you are expected to be a part of, whether in your role as a student or your role as a manager, whatever be it, you will be looking to learn from the people and from that situation.
And a great way to learn is to be curious and a fantastic way to be curious is to close this and to open this. Well, I'm sure you've heard it many times that we've been given one mouth and two ears. We're expected to have more of reception before we produce.
So as someone who's honing their leadership qualities and the qualities of communication that a leader has, An essential quality would be active listening. Active listening is a very conscious attempt to understand whatever is being told or whatever is happening, to empathize with it, to learn what can be learned from it, to be curious enough to get involved and to give feedback to whoever is talking to us. Conveying that we are involved, conveying that we are listening.
And by the feedback like I mentioned earlier, the ways of giving the feedback would be by our body language, our gestures, eye contact, nodding the head maybe, saying words like mmmm, okay, right, which convey that we are understanding, we are with the person. who is communicating to us. A part of active listening is also asking for clarification, asking questions, asking doubts which a lot of the times we might hesitate and pull back from thinking, oh what am I going to be thought of if I ask those questions. However, when you do ask a question, what you are conveying is also that you are an active listener. You are involved in the listening, you are curious about what is being spoken to you and you wish to understand it better.
Not only are you conveying that, even for yourself, if there is any miscommunication that has happened, let's say somebody has said something, when you ask a question back, you know whether you have understood it right or you have not understood it right. So active listening actually becomes a feedback for the person who is communicating and speaking with you. Passive listening on the other hand would mean perhaps disconnected from what is happening, totally not curious at all. Curiosity also comes from doing a little preparation prior or trying to connect the dots with the present.
what is happening at the moment. When none of that happens, it's completely passive. Just sitting there like a statue, that is absolutely passive listening where the person who's speaking to you has no idea whether he or she has been able to reach you or not. Passive listening is pretty much close to just hearing.
You can hear the sound of the AC, you can hear the traffic passing by but you don't do anything with it, you don't respond to it. It doesn't add value to you in any way whatsoever nor are you contributing back to it. All of those make anything passive listening more often than not. Like we said there are contexts where it is important to be a passive listener. We cannot always speak back, right?
When the flight announcement is being made regarding the processes during emergency, well, that's something you have to listen passively. And that's expected of us in that situation. We're not going to say, oh, right. Jokes apart, active listening.
It's a wonderful opportunity to be engaged learners, to be far more present in the here and now, in the moment that we are in and it has very many benefits in the long run. We've spoken about how we could be active listeners, right? By our body language, by actually facing the person who is talking to us. who's communicating with us by actually trying to look into their eyes and as much as possible make eye contact, by showing through our nods and gestures and mmms and ahhs that yes, we are with them.
By asking a few questions, these would go a long way in offering many ripple benefits. Benefits of active listening range from one, you get to be seen. As a far more trustworthy person, you build trust by listening actively. Don't you think that is valuable for you at whatever stage and space in life you might be in?
Another benefit of active listening would be in resolution of conflicts. The one who is listening actively can plea. A critical part in being able to understand the entire situation, empathize, ask the right questions and bring about the right understanding between people.
Which brings us to the next point that active listening is also an important tool to ensure that miscommunication does not happen and important information is actually getting conveyed in the manner in which it should be conveyed. This is a role that active listening can critically play. The more we practice being active listeners, not just with our ears, but also with our eyes, with our heart.
We are likely to be able to anticipate problems, perhaps even before they actually happen. This will come from regular practice of active listening because we are so observant of the person or the people or the entire situation with all our attention. we watch it, we give it our entire attention, we try our best to learn and to understand and to empathize with it.
So as we keep doing that regularly, we are certainly likely to be able to anticipate problems even before they happen. This is another benefit of practicing active listening skill. It goes without saying, of course, that for learners especially, active listening reinforces This whole process of building our knowledge base because when we go to a learning space with the intention to be active listeners, we go with our preparation, with our curiosity, with wanting to understand what is happening, to wanting to ask our questions, to clarify, to involve, to get feedback, to give feedback.
Definitely the scope for building our knowledge base through active listening is much higher vis-a-vis just continuing to remain a passive listener. And lastly, for any leader who wish to be far more empowered as a leader and to empower her or his team and go forward, active listening is a very valuable communication skill. Most of us are taught to train in public speaking, to train in debate, to train in oratory, to train in different aspects of speech and intonation and voice and words.
Of course, that's important. That's a very important aspect of communication. Having said all of that, It's equally or perhaps even more significant aspect of communication to be able to listen well, to listen actively.
Thank you.