Active Listening

Communication is a two way process involving a transmitter and receiver who perform a series of mutual coding and decoding processes. Receptivity and interpretation skill play a vital role in enhancing the success rate of any communication. The most important part in this process is played by active listening.

Active listening, which is also known as reflexive listening leads to comprehension and renders the communication meaningful. In a normal communication the person at the receiving end needs to constantly internalize the inputs received. This cognitive process is quite complex, involving the interpretation of various factors.

The general notion is that good communication involves the effective use of apt word that would exactly convey the intended information. On the contrarythere are quite a few other signals that transcend words, which are sent by the communicator to the communicatee. In fact, more than 75% of any normal communication is nonverbal.

Hence, the communicatee or the receiver has to be a master in active listening. Active listening is not just hearing and interpreting the words. It is to receive with alacrity and acumen the tonal quality, facial expressions, eye movement body-language and all such visible signals and also take in any cue offered by the context. This is the quintessence of active listening.

The listener has an important and responsible role to interpret every input received and arrive at the intended meaning of the speaker. The successful continuance of the communication now depends on his ability to interpret the signals received through active listening. The next step is to respond to the inputs received in the form of a reply or feedback and the role is changed, as the communicatee now becomes the communicator and vice-versa. Now the entire process is repeated with this reversal of roles and the resulting communication succeeds through active listening.