Active listening skills for professionals

Overview

Active listening skills are time-tested tools used by professionals with multiple occupations to improve their work. Psychologists, talk show presenters, or police negotiators can use active listening skills more than any other skill. Even if you do not advise a person in distress, do not cause a celebrity to reveal their emotions or do not negotiate for hostages, the principles of active listening are the same. Active listening means listening to the speaker’s words, meaning, intention, and emotions in a positive, impartial manner. Active listening also involves the creative use of a mix of discrete skills that can be applied to contribute to any conversation to generate additional meaning, intention, and emotion.

In this course, you will examine more advanced listening skills to help you act more effectively in the workplace. These skills include how to prepare your mind to actively listen, how to actively demonstrate that I am “listening,” how to generate thoughts and emotions from speakers, and how to direct conversations and ensure understanding.

Objectives

• Identify methods of mental training to actively listen
• Recognize skills that demonstrate attentive listening
• Recognize skills that generate thoughts and emotions
• Analyze a scenario to determine if accuracy skills have been applied properly
• Apply effectively of active listening skills in a professional context