Listening is an essential communication skill that enables us to effectively interact in relationships, both personal and professional. It is important to be able to identify and understand the different types of listening in order to effectively interact with others. This blog post will explore the four main types of listening skills: passive, active, critical, and empathic. We will discuss the characteristics of each type and provide examples to better understand how each type can be used in our daily communication with others. Additionally, we will review the benefits of honing our listening skills and explore some tips on how to become a better listener. Understanding the types of listening and developing our listening skills can help us interact with others more effectively, and ultimately improve relationships.
Effective types of listening
Learning about the various listening styles can be very beneficial, as they are all crucial to comprehend in both interpersonal relationships and the workplace. The following are some examples of the kinds of listening you might encounter and use at work:
Comprehensive listening
Making decisions based on what the other person says and determining the veracity of the statements you hear is known as comprehensive listening. You can also assess the speaker’s words in light of your own values, a process known as evaluative or critical listening, and determine whether they are good or bad.
In this kind of conversation, you might make distinctions and try to understand the speaker’s inner meaning in order to determine the benefits and drawbacks of their argument.
Discriminative listening
This type of listening entails recognizing the differences between tones and sounds to determine how these variations may impact a sentence’s overall meaning. Through discriminative listening, we can recognize verbal cues that reveal what the speaker is actually saying or the emotions they are attempting to convey. Others may be able to tell what emotions you are experiencing when they can detect subtle emotional variations in your voice.
Critical listening
Critical listening is a crucial type of listening because it calls for you to pay attention to a message and determine whether the speaker and message are reliable. Additionally, it can help you analyze and evaluate the message that is being conveyed to them by comparing it to any prior knowledge you may have on the subject. Professionals can conduct brainstorming sessions, develop fresh solutions, and discuss tactics using this kind of listening.
Therapeutic listening
The main goal of this type of listening is to emphasize that you understand the person you are speaking to, even though it requires you to listen for information. Behaviors that are commonly found with this are:
Full listening
Full listening is when you pay close attention to what the other person is saying. With this kind of listening, your goal is to fully comprehend the conversation’s topic. You can take a moment to summarize what you just heard or use paraphrasing, where you repeat what you just heard to the other person to verify that it is accurate. The speaker and you might both agree after the conversation is over that you did understand everything said. When attempting to comprehend a lecture or presentation, this kind of listening is a helpful skill to have.
Deep listening
Deep listening is more involved than full listening. Understanding the other speaker’s perspective is necessary for deep listening. You must carefully listen to the conversation’s details and pick up on numerous cues. Observing body language, recognizing prejudices and preferences, determining objectives and needs, and interpreting values and beliefs are some examples of these cues.
Ineffective types of listening
By practicing active listening, you can avoid the following types of ineffective listening: when a person pays the speaker their full attention and waits until they have finished speaking before formulating a response.
Selective listening
This type involves only addressing specific parts of what the other person has said in order to filter the message and better understand its purpose. Your capacity to comprehend every detail may be impacted by this listening style, which could result in misunderstandings.
Partial listening
When you intend to listen to someone else but are preoccupied, this is known as partial listening. This keeps you from hearing the other person completely. It’s possible that errant thoughts interfered or that you heard what the other person said and mentally prepared a response. This kind of listening could be construed as deceptive listening or affect a person’s capacity to provide a thorough response to a query or adhere to instructions.
False listening
False listening occurs when you appear to be paying attention to the other person while actually only partially understanding what they are saying. When they deem it appropriate, these listeners may smile, nod, or grunt to demonstrate their understanding. The quality of your listening could affect how productive you are at work.
Listening can come in many forms. Each circumstance will probably call for a different kind of listening, so it’s critical to be aware of which kind you’re doing. To become a more productive employee and coworker, put your attention toward developing your comprehensive, relationship, full, and deep listening skills.
Types of Listening Skills
FAQ
What are the 4 types of listening?
- Deep Listening. When you’re devoted to comprehending the speaker’s viewpoint, deep listening happens.
- Full Listening. Full listening entails paying close attention to what is being said by the speaker.
- Critical Listening. …
- Therapeutic Listening.
What are the 7 types of listening?
- Informational listening. You will use informational listening to comprehend and remember information when you want to learn something.
- Discriminative listening. …
- Biased listening. …
- Sympathetic listening. …
- Comprehensive listening. …
- Empathetic or therapeutic listening. …
- Critical listening.
What are the 5 listening types?
- Active Listening. …
- Critical Listening. …
- Informational Listening. …
- Empathetic Listening. …
- Appreciative Listening. …
- Visual Listening.
