Do you really know how much your listening skills influence your everyday communication? Well, I am here to tell you that it influences you a lot more than the average person tends to realize.
Growing up I never took into play that where you come from, your culture, could totally effect the way you listen and communicate with others. Personally coming from a big, loud Italian family listening is very important. My family never goes with out saying what is on their mind; we are definitely a Low Context Communication style family. It is rare that we use non verbal cues for communication(“Improving Listening Competence” 266). After saying what they need to say they ask if we understand it. This is exactly how I have learned to communicate over the years, but growing up I saw how my friends families communicate in all different ways from the way I do with my family; which influences the way they listen and communicate When the reading mentioned how your culture and the people you grow up with effect the way you communicate and listen made me realize all these experiences that I did not notice until now (266).
Active listening skills at your job is a very important skill to have. While I am at my job, at the bakery, I take customers orders for a majority of the time and I have show I am listening by replying to them and repeating back their order. I also must show that I am engaged in the conversation with a lot of eye contact; as the reading states, “…non verbal feedback can be useful for a speaker, as it signals that you are listening…” (257). Also, my coworkers, boss and I all must have good listening skills to let each other know the tasks that are getting done during our shift so no one repeats a task that is already done. The reading stated, “As active listeners, we want to be excited and engaged…” (257). This is exactly what we try to enforce at work also.
Intra personal communication is another important influence in bettering your listening skills. Communicating with yourself on a daily basis is important for yourself for self motivation and positivity, but it is also good for learning how to listen and understand. (254-255). If you can do that for yourself you can do that in any type of communication you are having. I have mini conversations with myself mostly with school situations. I ask myself and make sure I know the information for my classes by taking good notes. The reading states, “Note taking can also indicate active listening” (257). I give myself positive feedback on my notes so I will do better on the exams. This helps me tremendously, especially since entering college.
So again, do people really know how much listening impacts their communication skills? The answer to that is unknown but just know that it is one of the most important things that come with communicating the best and right way.
Mercy Core Values are all about the goodness in the world. Respect, I believe is one of the most important ones. Throughout everything I have talked about I think respect relates well to all of it. It is all about respecting family and your elders, respecting the people you work with including your boss and respecting yourself enough to know when you need help in your classes and giving yourself the positivity you need to do good in school. Everyone should live by the Mercy Core Values.
References:
Communication in the Real World: an Introduction to Communication Studies. University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing Edition, 2016.
§Martina, Antonio. “Active Listening: What Is It And How To Improve It.” Medium, Medium, 7 Oct. 2018, medium.com/@antoniomartina/active-listening-what-is-it-and-how-to-improve-it-ba532cad781b.
§U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of State, www.state.gov/courses/answeringdifficultquestions/html/app.htm?p=practice_p9.htm.
“Everyday Communication – Ppt Download.” SlidePlayer, slideplayer.com/slide/17457682/.
Rutigliano, Gianna. “All of my organized notes for my classes.” 3 March 2020.
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