Effective Listening Skills: the Most Difficult Communication Skill

Which communication skill do you use most frequently? Which one are you most effective using? One of the most critical skills of successful people whether in the business world or private life is their ability to communicate effectively. The most important component of effective communication … effective listening skills.

Listening is the communication skill most of us use the most frequently.

Various studies stress the importance of listening as a communication skill. A typical study points out that many of us spend 70 to 80 percent of our waking hours in some form of communication. Of that time, we spend about 9 percent writing, 16 percent reading, 30 percent speaking, and 45 percent listening.

Studies also confirm that most of us are poor and inefficient listeners. Why?

Several reasons are likely:

Listening training is few and far between

Even though listening is the communication skill we use most frequently, it is also the skill in which we’ve had the least training. From personal experience, we know we’ve had much more formal training in other major communication skills — writing, reading, and speaking. In fact, very few persons have had any formal training in listening.