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Stages of Listening 51

n light of Facebook, Twitter, wikis, and blogs, we need to expand the traditional definition
Iof listening as the receiving and processing of auditory signals. If posting messages on social
media sites is part of human communication (which it surely is), then reading these messages
must also be part of human communication and most logically a part of listening. Listening,
then, may now be defined as the process of receiving, understanding, remembering, evaluat-
ing, and responding to verbal and/or nonverbal messages.
The skills of listening will prove crucial to you in both your professional and personal
lives (Brownell, 2010; Worthington & Fitch-Hauser, 2011). In today’s workplace listening is For a brief discussion of the impor-
tance of listening in health care, see
regarded as a crucial skill. Employees’ communication skills are especially significant in this “Listening Doctors” at tcbdevito
era of technological transformation; workers’ advancement will depend on their ability to .blogspot.com. In what other
speak and write effectively, to display proper etiquette, and to listen attentively. In a survey of areas would you like to see people
40 CEOs of Asian and Western multinational companies, respondents cited a lack of listen- listening more effectively?
ing skills as the major shortcoming of top executives (Witcher, 1999).
There can be little doubt that listening skills play a crucial role in developing and maintain-
ing a variety of interpersonal relationships (Brownell, 2010). When asked what they want in a
partner, women overwhelmingly reply, “a partner who listens.” And
most men would agree that they too want a partner who listens. Among
friends, listening skills rank consistently high; in fact, it would be hard
to think of a person as a friend if that person were not a good listener.
The effective listener is more likely to emerge as group leader and a
more effective salesperson, healthcare worker, and manager (Johnson
& Bechler, 1998; Lauer, 2003; Stein & Bowen, 2003; Levine, 2004;
Pelham & Kravitz, 2008; Brownell, 2010). Medical educators, claiming
that doctors are not trained to listen to their patients, have introduced
what they call “narrative medicine” to teach doctors how to listen to
their patients and to recognize how their perceptions of their patients
are influenced by their own emotions.
Here we look at the importance of listening, the nature of the lis-
tening process, the major barriers to listening effectiveness, varied
styles of listening for different situations, and some cultural and gen-
der differences in listening.

Stages of Listening

According to our contemporary definition, listening is a collection of skills
involving (1) attention and concentration (receiving), (2) learning (understanding), Receiving
(3) memory (remembering), (4) critical thinking (evaluation), and (5) feedback
(responding). You can enhance your listening ability by strengthening these skills,
which make up the five steps of the listening process (Figure 3.1). Responding Understanding
Note that the process of listening is circular: The response of person A stim-
ulates a response from person B, which stimulates a response from person A, and
so on. All five stages overlap. When you listen, you’re performing all five pro-
cesses at essentially the same time. For example, when listening in conversation,
you’re not only paying attention to what other people are saying but also criti- Evaluating Remembering
cally evaluating what they just said and perhaps giving feedback. Let’s take a look
at each stage separately.

FiguRe 3.1
Receiving
Hearing (which is not the same as listening), begins and ends with the first stage of the A Five-Stage Model of the Listening Process
This model, which depicts the various stages in-
listening process, receiving. Hearing happens when you get within range of some volved in listening, draws on a variety of previous
auditory stimulus. Listening, on the other hand, begins only when the messages the models that listening researchers have developed
speaker sends are received, or heard. (e.g., Alessandra, 1986; Barker, 1990; Brownell,
At the receiving stage, you note not only what is said (verbally and nonver- 2010; Steil, Barker, & Watson, 1983). In what other
bally) but also what is omitted. For example, you receive not only the politician’s ways might you visualize the listening process?