What's Your Listening Type?

Good listening skills are an important part of communicating effectively. Research suggests that the average adult devotes 9 % of their time to writing, 16 % to reading, 30 % to speaking and 45 % to listening. Moreover, studies declare that after a ten-minute oral presentation, the average listener hears, receives, comprehends, and retains only about 40 % of the message. After forty-eight hours most listeners remember only about 25 % of what they heard. Being a good listener requires patience, concentration and recognition. There are several different ways in how people tend to listen. Recognizing your listening type can help in school, work and relationships.

People

- Respond to feelings, emotions and seek to develop a connection with the speaker.

- Storytelling is an effective way of communicating with people-oriented listeners because empathetic.

- May be seen as intrusive because want to know about personal issues and may become too involved with others.

- Provide clear verbal and non-verbal cues and respond well to humor and illustrations.

Action

- Want speakers to get the point quickly, be concise and focus on work expectations. Avoid rambling.

- Confident, critical, focused on solving problems and want to get tasks done.

- May be a bit impatient, speak over others and complete another person's sentence.

- Not concerned with establishing relationships or listening to a drawn-out story.

- Effective communication with action-oriented listeners need to be direct, organized and delivered at a fast but controlled pace.

Content

- Looks at all sides of an argument and rejects information that is not supported with evidence or expert opinion.

- Do not mind technical information or speaking in groups and make sure that conclusions are related to the facts.

- May intimidate people because ask tough questions, play "devil's advocate" and take a long time making decisions.

- Graphs and charts are good tools to use when speaking with content-oriented listeners.

Time

- Want quick and brief messages that get directly to the point because have a sense of needing to be busy and generally have a "things to do" list.

- Tend to set aside a specific time for a meeting or discussion.

- Frequently look at the clock, interrupt others or rush and remind speakers of how much time is left.

- Keep track of time when communicating with this type of listener.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jamelah Henry specializes in producing "All-Star" employees for the workplace. She is a product of a job training program from early in her career. She used the skillsets that she learned and was immediately recognized by top employers. After a few short years in the workforce, she was promoted to a management position. She spent the last 17 years of her career working as a manager, trainer, recruiter, and entrepreneur specializing in hiring, training, coaching and developing both existing and new hire employees to bring their best to the workplace. She is an SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) Certified Professional, earned a B.S. in Human Resource Management from Wilmington University and a member of the Delta Epsilon Rho Honor Society. She is also a current member of the National Resume Writers Association (NRWA) and working towards a certification as a National Resume Writer. In her spare time, she likes giving back to her community!