Active Listening Communication Skills

The simplest example of interpersonal communication in the workplace is a conversation between two people. This activity makes up a significant proportion of the total amount of communication that you are involved in each day, and doing it well has a big influence on your effectiveness as a manager. A deceptively simple concept called active listening can really help you to improve your communication skills. It was originally developed in the context of therapeutic interviews, but its principles can be applied to workplace communications.

Listening is the most fundamental component of interpersonal communication skills and is an active process in which a conscious decision is made to listen to and understand the messages of the speaker. As a listener, you should remain neutral and non-judgmental;
this means trying not to take sides or form opinions, especially early in the conversation. Active listening is concerned with improving your ability to understand exactly what the other party means when speaking to you. This is not as straightforward as it sounds because active listening involves listening for meaning (specifically, the meaning perceived by the other party), not just listening to the words they use and accepting them at face value. Active listening requires patience because people need time to explore their own thoughts and feelings before putting them into words. This means that short periods of silence should be accepted and you need to resist the temptation to jump in with questions or comments every time the speaker pauses. 

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