Listening: Chapter 4

Business Communication

Group 4

The following summery of chapter 4 will explain why listening is very important in business.
Most of the time what we do is listen,I can say it is constant even up to 50%.Very important skills in business is writing and speaking ,but they are not used as often as listening.A lot of effort is need to listen carefully,otherwise if we are poor listeners that can be bad for our business.
In any business relation ,business managers,employees must listen to customers.It is important to understand the difference between listening and hearing,when we hear sounds it does not have to mean we are aware that we are constantly hearing them,when listening includes the fact that we are actually paying attention.Listening is an active process of selecting ,attending to,interpreting and remembering sounds.Selecting essentially refers to becoming aware of and choosing a given sound among many competing sounds.Attending involves consciously focusing on sounds because they are interesting,expected or surprising.Interpreting is the process of decoding sounds to gain understanding and assigning meaning to messages in context in which they are received.Remembering involves the storage of received information in short- and long-term memory,we remember information for the purpose of later retrieval and use.
In business term active listening is an interpersonal and interactive process in which we actively focus on,interpret and respond verbally and non verbally to messages.Being an active listener means when you receive a message from the speaker is to be able to give a feedback.In order to this you must be alert ,control the tendency to become distracted and fix attention on to the context and emotional tone of the message.This skill is primary in business ,because it provides foundation for other types listening,such as learning critiquing what is heard ,providing sensitivity or assistance,and participating in open group dialogues.
Listen to learn means to be focused mentally on the information that you will be able later to recall and use in personal as well in professional life.In order to listen and Lear you should avoid all possible distractions ,be mentally sharp and remain quiet,relate ideas to your own experience and prior knowledge and without judgment avoid openly or mentally criticizing the information until you completely understand the messange.