Critical Listening: a Key to Success in Managerial Communications

Critical Listening: A Key to Success in Managerial Communications

“The art of effective listening is essential to clear communication, and clear communication is necessary to management success”. –James Cash Penney

Listening is a skill that is critical for not only subordinates to master, but managers as well. Often times, we overlook the difference between listening and hearing. Listening requires much more effort than hearing. While hearing enables us to observe sounds, it does not delve into the message behind words when they are spoken, as listening does because it takes place on not only a physical, but psychological level. (Hynes, 2011)

Listening has many benefits. First, the attention to detail is compromised if one is not an effective listener. A good (effective) listener will not miss important details when conversing or being given instructions. This can affect the ability to more successfully follow directions, and ultimately commit fewer errors. From personal experience, I know that if a manager of mine is an effective listener, I feel more comfortable going to him/her with questions or issues. This is because I am confident they are going to give me properly informed advice. Many small, but important details can be overlooked when not listening effectively. For example, poor listening can potentially lead to something embarrassing like missing someone’s name, or a small but important detail. These are things that can seriously affect a manager’s reputation and create a stigma of them not being concerned enough to listen. By nature, people need to be heard to satisfy their own emotional stability, and not allowing someone to be heard because of poor listening skills is a morale killer.

Managers often are required to go out in the field and gather information, for the purpose of bringing it back and relaying it to his/her team. (Simonton, 2012) Ineffective listening will not allow for proper retention of the message, which will knock down the...