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Not only human beings but also all other beings living in this planet need communication. They use their own methods of communication among which human beings have a unique way of communication which is what we call the language.

Communication is mainly comprised of speaking, listening, reading, writing and body language. By and large, people seem to be reluctant to listen to what others say, but always willing to speak. Sometimes, employees are forced to listen to their superiors. However, listening is an essential part of communication. 

Communication plays a great role in today’s business environment. One of the reasons as to why business organizations are unable to successfully implement strategies, is the lack of proper communication. It is communication which connects employees with senior managers in the work place. Since school time, people are trained to write and read, hardly to listen. However, listening can be taken as a skill which can be improved by training. It is so important that companies have focused on grooming their employees to improve listening skills. 

To be an effective listener, four skills have to be improved. They are “HIER” pronounced as hear. Let us have a closer look at them and their relevance in the business environment. 


Hear
As a good listener, you have to carefully hear, paying attention, stopping other tasks and so on. This might be at a public lecture or in an informal interpersonal conversation being held among employees, managers and colleagues. 

Employees always bring their grievances to managers. Then, it is up to managers to hear well, having stopped doing other things. It will definitely send a signal to the employee that managers actually care about employees. 

What can be seen in some business organizations is that when managers hear, they become biased. That’s why, it has to be said that sexism and favoritism always prevent managers from being an effective listener. 

Managers listen to some well, while ignoring listening to others. Furthermore, even if huge amount of money is spent on conducting training workshops, so that employees are able to acquire new knowledge and skills, because participants are not good listeners, that might not be so productive. Although many lectures are delivered, unless participants are good listeners, it could be futile. Hence, first of all, employees ought to be groomed to hear well.


Interpret 
Human beings are the most complicated beings in this planet. It is very difficult to clearly understand what they say and how they behave etc. the same can be seen, even when dealing with employees and colleagues. For an instance, once an employee explains his grievances in front of a manager, his body language can convey something different from what he is saying. Hence, you, as an effective listener, have to interpret and then get a clear idea of that. 

As mentioned, communication can be verbal and non-verbal. Unless these two things match with one another, you ought to ask questions to ensure that your understanding of the speaker’s message is accurate. Speakers do not always say exactly what they mean or mean exactly what they say. Then you can get further explanation by asking questions. 


Evaluate 
You don’t accept what others say as it is. You evaluate it and look at it in different perspectives. You might want to confirm whether it is true or not, for reaching a final decision. You shouldn’t jump the gun. Make sure that you have all of the important information before forming an opinion. If we take the above-mentioned example itself, once an employee is explaining grievances, you evaluate and then form an opinion in that connection. Going in to detail is very important to evaluate. You can probe about what employee says, so that you are able to know a lot of things relevant to the matter to which you can respond based on the evaluation. 


Respond
This is the last stage of listening. What is more important to be penned here is that listening alone is not sufficient, you have to respond to what you listened to. In many cases, you are expected to take a decision and implement a strategy, having listened to someone or something. Your response might be either positive or negative, as it is based on the evaluation. 

For an example, after listening to an employee’s grievances, you might decide to help him out. That’s your response. However, only if you listened to him carefully, you might be able to reach a right decision. It means that your response might be either right or wrong. This can be very costly, if a manager responds in a wrong manner. It will result in demotivation and finally turnover as well. Moreover, following a training workshop, the response of participants should be to successfully apply the knowledge gained at the workshop into the workplace. 

Human nature is that people are willing to speak more and listen to less.  However, listening is an essential part of communication, because two individuals cannot speak at the same time, one must have to listen to. Listening skills have taken a pride of place in employee development. 

 (Amila Muthukutti holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Colombo. He can be reached at [email protected])