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Exercise 19: Irritating Listening Habits Assessment

INSTRUCTIONS: Place an “I” before any of the following habits of which you are guilty
– even if rarely – when communicating with others. (BE HONEST! Only you will see
your responses.) Then determine how you may avoid using these irritating listening
habits in the future.

_____1. Sometimes don’t give others a chance to talk. I go in knowing what I want to
say and sometimes don’t allow other’s concerns to be discussed.

_____2. Sometimes interrupt when others are talking.

_____3. Avoid looking at others when they talk.

_____4. Have been known to doodle or draw pictures while others talk.

_____5. At times, play with a pencil, pen, paperclip, or other object that may be in my
hand while others talk.

_____6. Pace the room if I get impatient with others.

_____7. Use a “poker face” sometimes in my conversations with others.

_____8. Have been known to ignore others while taking several incoming calls.

_____9. Seldom smile while working with a customer or colleague.
_____10. Feel uncomfortable and change the subject if someone asks me a question
about something I don’t know the answer to.

_____11. Have been known to prefinish others’ sentences while they are talking.

_____12. Frequently answer a question with another question.

_____13. Have been caught asking a question about some topic I was discussing with
someone – only to show him/her that I wasn’t really listening.

_____14. Take prolific notes when others talk.

_____15. Have been known to interrupt others and say, “that reminds me of . . . .”

_____16. Sometimes check my watch if I am talking with someone and know that I have
to be somewhere else in the next 20 to 30 minutes.
_____17. Often am rushed and forget to give important information.

_____18. Sometimes pretend to listen to others’ points of view when I have already
made up my mind about an issue.

David Kolzow 141