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Chapter 8: Communication Skills

Figure 8.1

Listening Skills
The ability to listen well is a skill like any other: you can always improve it. Here is a way to gauge your ability to listen and avoid distractions: have a friend or family member read you something you have not read before. It can be a page from a novel, a scene from a play, or an article in the newspaper. When he or she is finished, describe out loud the main points of what you heard.

Now, have the person read you a second piece, but this time do it in a room where a television is turned on. See how much harder it is to concentrate on what you are hearing when there are other things fighting for your attention?

Being able to listen to what you need to hear, even when there are distractions present, is a valuable skill to cultivate. Practice by reading a few pages of a book, or a newspaper or magazine article in a noisy environment. Each time, go back and re-read it in a quiet area and notice how different the experience is. By learning to tune out the television (or the radio, loud conversation, or whatever distraction is going on around you), you will get better at focusing on the task at hand.