Effective and Ineffective Listening

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Effective and Ineffective Listening Behaviours Ashley Smith ID# 330755 Cohort 1 Interpersonal Relationships and Communication Skill Journal Assignment 3 Instructor Rachel Ross Tuesday, March 25, 2014 Effective and Ineffective Listening Behaviours There are many communication strategies in everyday life that can be effective or ineffective. Effective communication helps create a better understanding of others around us or situations we are involved in and enables us to resolve differences, build trust, respect, and problem solve. As simple as communication seems, how people communicate has the ability to be misinterpreted and can cause conflict and frustration in personal and professional relationships. Listening is defined as an active and complex process that involves being mindful; hearing selecting, and organizing information; interpreting communication; responding; and remembering (Wood & Schweitzer, 2010). Listening is and active process which means that it requires effort with the ears, heart, and mind. Maintaining a safe and encouraging environment for communication allows it to be more effective. Observing a conversation gives many examples of effective communication used by people, that people are unaware of and just comes natural. Most of participants of the conversation were attentive. They expressed attention and support to the person talking by leaning forward, facing the speaker and relaxing (Wood & Schweitzer, 2010). These people also gave minimal encouragers that expressed interest in the topic and invited the speaker to share more, this included verbal and nonverbal communication. The verbal ques were “tell me more,” “really?” “go on,” and “then what happened?” (Wood & Schweitzer, 2010). Nonverbal encouragers used were head nodding, raised eyebrows, widened eyes (Wood & Schweitzer,
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