Importance of listening in Management

By Lalit Bhojwani, 21st Apr 2012 | Follow this author | RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/2nrgcr23/
Posted in Wikinut>Business>Business Opportunities

Listening is a very important skill especially for managers.

Importance of listening in Management

First of all, it is important to understand the difference between listening and hearing because in management, listening is one of the most important skills. Listening requires focus of mind and without focusing on the concerned issue managers can hear, but they do not listen.In communication, listening means understanding the exact message.

The second term is management, and in simple words, management is a process that is related with managing resources and to manage resources managers perform several functions like planning, organizing, motivating, getting results and communication. Communication is the most important skill for managers and without communication, nothing can be managed. Managers cannot perform any task without communication, and listening is the main part of communication.

There is a big secret behind listening that is active listening. There are two kinds of listening active and passive listening In active listening managers take the interest and in passive listening, they have to listen without any interest. Taking interest plays an important role in active listening

Confidence:- A manager that listens actively will tend to have better self-confidence and self-image because he will get along better with others.

The way to become a better listener is to practice "active listening". To be a better listener a manager has to learn the skill of asking questions. By asking relevant questions managers can get real message. Without developing habit of asking questions no manager can become a good listener.To listen to the real message managers must understand what is not being said. If managers learn to listen to real message, then nobody in the world can stop them to be a good leader.

In management providing feedback plays an important role in success of any organization. And without active listening manages cannot provide good feedback.Listening skill is essential in all spheres of management. Be it an interview or dealing with the project leader or working out a solution with a team.

Listening is a key instrument to create relations and to strengthen relations between the two people or a group of people.Patience plays a key role in listening and there are two kinds of listening active and passive listening. In active listening managers take the interest and in passive listening, they have to listen without any interest.

The way to become a better listener is to practice "active listening."The lack of active listening by manager causes many unnecessary problems like misunderstandings, damaged relationships, confused instructions and poor decision-making.The entire career of a manager depends on this single skill, listening. Listening the real message makes them real leaders. By listening proper message prevents managers to make errors. By right listening, they can take right actions. Every important function in management is started with listening.

When employees provide feedback, and managers listen and respond with swift action. Employees feel respected and heard, which results in increased loyalty to the company. Listening is a skill that can be developed and must be learnt because it plays a major and vital role in a negotiation process. Effective managers have always been good listeners. Effective managers are active listeners, and therefore my message is simple..."talk less and listen more" that is why every human being has two ears and one mouth.