Have you ever been in a conversation, only to realise later that you missed something important? This can happen when you’re just waiting for your turn to speak, instead of listening to understand. You can avoid these situations by developing active listening skills.
Active listening helps you become not only a better listener, but more efficient at your job. It enables you to recognise the meaning and intent behind someone’s words. You’ll know when to ask questions to clarify something you’re unsure about and you’ll help the person feel heard.
Both your personal and your professional life can benefit from active listening skills. Being an active listener can improve your interactions in the workplace, so you get along better with your co-workers and the days flow more easily.
Active listening skills can also give you confidence when applying for jobs, by helping you prepare for interviews. Here’s what this guide covers:
Why is active listening important?
How to improve your active listening skills
Other ways to improve your active listening skills
How to demonstrate active listening skills during an interview
Active listening means really paying attention when you talk with someone, to understand them better. It’s not about just hearing what they say and responding. It’s about hearing them and getting a feel for their motivations and emotions.
One of the biggest benefits of active listening is that it helps you understand others better. This can help you resolve conflicts, work more effectively as part of a team, and improve your productivity. Developing this skill can also prepare you for jobs where collaboration is key. People aren’t born with perfect communication skills. But you can improve your active listening with a little effort, practice, and patience.
A workplace can include diverse people, each with their own communication style that aligns with their personality and culture. At the same time, people listen to others through a set of filters shaped by their personal experiences. For example, a teammate might think it’s impolite to ask questions in a conversation, while someone else might think it’s fine.
There’s a psychological reason why active listening makes the communication process better. Being an active listener builds deeper and stronger relationships by helping you feel closer to others. Active listening can also encourage people to reveal important details they may not have shared.
Integrating active listening techniques into your conversations can improve your communication with others across the board. Here are some benefits you might see at work when you use your listening skills.
Miscommunications can waste a considerable amount of time. When you use active listening, you can better understand how you should be approaching a task, reducing confusion and back-and-forth messages.
When people feel heard, they’re more likely to speak up and share ideas. They’re also more likely to help each other. This can help build trust and make teamwork more effective.
Employees often come to leaders for advice or empathy about workplace concerns. By developing active listening skills, you can demonstrate that you’re a leader who cares about your team. This could make you an attractive option for a promotion or new role. Faciliators also have great active listening skills.
A team member may have valuable information on why a project is failing but is unaware they have this knowledge. Active listening can uncover valuable insights from those team members, allowing you to make well-rounded and informed decisions.
Here are some practical active listening techniques to help you improve your skills.
Even though you may feel that you can multi-task well, distractions like your phone can impact your ability to perform other tasks, or even hear someone who is speaking to you. This active listening technique can also help you retain more of what is being said to you, so you can take appropriate action.
You can show someone that you’re paying attention to their words with body language. This active listening technique involves putting down your tools, facing the person speaking and making appropriate eye contact. Try to keep a neutral expression, and nod your head to show that you understand and want them to go on.
Follow-up questions and statements can show that you’ve listened to someone and processed what they said. You can demonstrate this active listening skill by replying with statements summarising the person’s point, to confirm you understand their meaning. You can also ask questions if anything’s unclear.
Avoid passing judgment or interrupting. Doing so can hamper your ability to fully understand what they’re trying to tell you. Instead, encourage them to keep talking, so you can hear the full story and offer solutions if they’re looking for advice.
A person may share something with you because they want advice, or they might want you to act on their information. An example of this would be someone telling you that they feel overworked. Perhaps a colleague abruptly left the business, leaving them with extra work. Actively listening could prompt you to ask if they’ve told their manager. It’s always a good idea to ask if they want you to take action or if they just need someone to talk to.
Like many other interpersonal skills, you can practise active listening techniques to improve your abilities.
Assess your current active listening techniques by answering yes or no to the following statements:
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, consider spending more time practising active listening.
The next time you’re preparing to have a conversation, consider practising your active listening skills by integrating the following techniques into your responses:
When a question pops into your mind, note it and determine if it needs an open- or closed-ended response. An open-ended response is useful when gathering information about something. A closed-ended question helps you get a factual answer, such as a number or figure.
For example, you could use a closed-ended question to get a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response to a direct question. A scenario where you might use this includes getting confirmation of the date that a customer received their order.
An example of an open-ended question includes feedback from a team member. Instead of asking them if they found your contributions helpful, you could ask them to provide details. A scenario you can apply this to is hosting a meeting and asking attendees if there's anything to add to the agenda, such as a progress update.
You can add certain phrases and words to your conversations, to help clarify important details. The next time you speak to someone, try using the following phrases to gather the key points of the conversation:
Remember that active listening skills are like muscles. The more you use them, the stronger they get, and the less effort you’ll need to put into exercising them.
When hiring for a role, interviewers usually look at your hard and soft skills. Hard skills include technical skills like qualifications, while soft skills are your interpersonal abilities. Here are a few ways to highlight active listening soft skills in your next interview.
Active listening requires you to take time when replying to questions. This can help you steady yourself and formulate an answer that shows you understand the question and are a good listener.
Your body language can convey more than words. You can show you’re an attentive listener by making eye contact, using positive facial expressions and good posture, leaning in, and keeping your arms uncrossed.
Questions can show you’ve done your research and built on the information. For example, you could mention the company’s record of achievement and how you can contribute to it.
Interviews that are online or by phone can prevent you from assessing someone’s body language, which is instrumental to active listening. You can stay focused by summarising or paraphrasing the speaker’s words.
Pay careful attention to the interviewer’s tone, and don’t interrupt them. Avoid the temptation to multitask. After the interview, you may realise that you didn’t ask something or you want more information. You can follow up with an email to ask questions. This also confirms your interest in the role.
When you improve your active listening skills, you’ll benefit from more effective communication at home, socially, and at work. This toolkit can improve your attention to body language, your empathy, and your ability to reflect and find deeper meaning in what people are saying. It can transform your interactions with others in unexpected ways. Developing your skills will not only help you become a better listener, but also enrich your social skills, and ultimately boost your workplace success.
Simply listening to someone speak differs from active listening, as listening is a passive process involving a one-way flow of communication. Active listening requires people participating in a two-way conversation, where both parties seek to understand each other.
Active listening isn’t an innate skill that people are born with, meaning you can improve with practice. While listening to someone speak may not require a conscious effort, listening to comprehend them does. By consciously and deliberately using active listening in your communications, you can develop this skill.
A common challenge in practicing active listening is rushing through your conversations due to a lack of time. To understand someone when speaking to them, you may need to ask follow-up questions and take time to form responses. You can overcome this challenge by setting aside dedicated time to have important conversations with people.
You can maintain active listening in virtual settings by having conversations in a quiet, distraction-free environment. Test your communication equipment before your call, to ensure they work. You can also recap and share key points and statements after each session to ensure everyone is on the same page.
Here are some applications and tools you can use to improve your active listening skills: