Listening and its impact

“ The single most important key to success is to be a good listener’, aptly goes the saying.Listening is all about understanding, empathizing, and connecting with those around us. It accompanies small changes, such as maintaining eye contact, nodding in acknowledgment, or offering a genuine smile, can transform the nature of our interactions and strengthen the bonds we share.

Listening is a catalyst for understanding. It bridges gaps and fosters empathy. True listening opens ourselves to diverse perspectives and experiences, that helps cultivate a culture of respect and collaboration, laying the foundation for positive change in our communities and beyond.We know how an attentive and heartful hearing by one’s mother after getting scolded at school, makes us feel so much loved. Listening has the power to heal unsaid wounds in one’s mind.

Why be a good listener

Listening skills are essential in personal and professional life. Effective listening and communication helps to build strong relationships, improves problem-solving capabilities, increases productivity, boosts confidence, and avoids miscommunications. Being listened to holds much importance for the human mind. With a multitude of distractions around us, including those of social media, today effective listening is a challenge for many. However the human mind seeks validation through empathy.Thus, being empathetic is an important skill that solves problems arising from poor communication. In fact, it would be really worth taking it as our mission to motivate our friends, family members and the people of my neighbourhood by being an active listener in one’s daily conversations, as a way to genuinely understand others.

The sublime outcome of good listening

Good listening fosters trust in each other. Needless to say, the value of trust can never be undermined; as it has the power to destroy the governments,businesses and the entire social fabric. However, if developed and leveraged, trust has the potential to create unparalleled success and prosperity. It changes the quality of every present moment and alters the trajectory and outcome of every future moment of our life – both personally and professionally.It is a pragmatic, tangible actionable asset that one can create – much faster than one may think it is possible through nothing but good communication paired with effective listening.
An environment that lacks trust is characterized by hostility, lack of cooperation between employees, dishonesty, and low productivity. Actions such as insensitiveness during discussions, issuing insensitive orders and using vulgar languages, denying people an opportunity to express their feelings or opinions break down the fabric of trust.

 

About the authors

The article has been contributed by the following students from Our Lady Queen of the Missions School, Park Circus: Nandika Mukherjee, Nayanika Biswas, Adrika Shaw and Sumandira Bandyopadhyay.