Have you ever thought that listening skills can speak? If you have, you’re thinking is right. Listening skills are speaking skills.
When we converse, we receive a kind of confirmation that someone is listening, not just hearing, by way of slight head movements, maybe, slight head nodding, and subtle or sometimes more obvious facial expressions. Then there are words and phrases like “right” and “I know what you mean”. But the facial expression that tells us someone is listening is what we more often do not notice until it’s not there.
Listening skills are speaking skills
This is really one of these hidden communication manners that could cause problems at work. We don’t always know why someone or something might rub someone the wrong way. If people provide no indication that they are listening, it could bother colleagues in some way, and they may not know why. It could cause some people to lean into the conversation. And what would that mean? Or what would that say?
I’ve noticed that facial expression is just about completely absent, or completely absent, at times, which leads me to wonder whether the person is really present and understands what’s happening in the dialog.
And if someone is not letting me know that they are listening in a way that we, in the English speaking world, are accustomed to, then I can only imagine that the same occurs with colleagues in business or professional conversations. That can have a negative effect because a person’s colleagues are likely not given to understanding this as something that is possibly cultural. It would likely come across as a personal trait. But, maybe, not everyone is accustomed to the same type of backchanneling. This calls to mind the idea of active listening skills training.
Language and communication are culture. Speaking and listening are culture. Discover backchannelling.