Active Listening

Active Listening is a Critical skill you need in the post Covid19 economy

Without a doubt the world will not be the same after the Covid19 Pandemic, we have been reliant on online platforms to continue our work, by communicating with people through video conferencing, the ability to listen and connect with others is more critical than ever, the skill of Active Listening can be acquired and the art of it can be developed through deliberate and diligent practice. It requires that the listener fully concentrate, understand, respond and then remember what is being said. [1]

Active listening is needed in many aspects of life, not just at work, as it is a critical part of communications and hence forms the foundations of trust in any relationship. As part of the 6 basic stages of the listening process, we often stop at stage 3 and may jump to stage 6 before stage 4 or 5, which will allow us to recall and process (or evaluate) 

In Toastmasters, we practice active listening by having to practice all the 6 steps when we are conducting speech evaluations. It requires us to fulfil all the steps and pushes us to develop that instinct to listen actively in this attention-deficient-multi-tasking age.

We evaluate speeches that we have heard just a few moments ago.
step 1 - we hear the speaker deliver their prepared speech
step 2 - in Attending, focus on some phrases and messages in the speech
step 3 - in Understanding we internalise and reference what was said
step 4 - in Remembering we try to recall and connect with our experience
step 5 - in Evaluating we crystallise the thoughts in forming an opinion
step 6 - in responding we deliver our evaluation about the speech

In continually doing speech evaluation we hone our active listening skills until it becomes second nature, allowing us to move through the 6 step process quickly and efficiently. With video conferencing, it is hard to listen actively, because we can be easily distracted by other things happening in our home, or due to network issues resulting in poor audio quality, thus making active listening a critical skill that we all must have.

To understand more of how evaluation is conducted in the Toastmasters setting drop by for one of our meetings. 

Yian Tay, DTM
m:	82884499
e:	yiantay.tmc@gmail.com