Listening - Your Professional Advantage (In-House Training)Communication - General

Introduction

This program moves beyond active listening to pro-active listening.  In business, 48% of communicating time is spent listening – as much time as the other three modes (writing, reading and speaking) together.  Unfortunately, listening is the only mode in which few people have had any education.  This program will address that by providing trainees with skills, techniques and strategies that allow them to become superb communicators in any business environment.  It will become a competitive edge.

Key Takeaways

Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to;

• Understand the role of listening plays in effective communication
• Be aware of the common barriers to communication and how to overcome them
• Acknowledge their own biases and how they impact on effective listening
• Create a higher level of empathy and understanding with anyone they communicate with
• Listen and reflect the message in another’s voice
• Listen with their eyes to assess the other’s body language
• Listen more effectively when there is no visual message (eg on the phone)
• Encourage less-skilled communicators to more effectively share information
• Pro-actively use responses and questioning to achieve a higher level of connection

Who Should Attend

Anyone who communicates professionally one-on-one – either face to face or remotely.  Managers, team leaders, salespeople and customer service staff will all benefit.

Programme Outline

Module 1: What listening is

• Definition
• Listening process

Module 2: Listening Barriers

• Sender’s barriers
• Environmental barriers
• Listener’s barriers

Module 3: Listening Filters

• Experience
• Attitude
• Beliefs
• Knowledge
• Context

Module 4: Listening Pre-requisites

• Empathy
• Bias awareness
• Suspended judgement

Module 5: Listening Skills

• Concentration and presence
• Body language

Module 6: Active Listening Skills

• Encouragers
• Reflection of content
• Summarising
• Paraphrasing

Module 7: Questioning

• The questioning imperatives
• Open and closed questions
• Solution-focused questions

Module 8: Advanced Listening Skills

• Reflection of feeling
• Giving feedback
• Confronting inconsistencies
• Reading non-verbal messages

Methodologies

Instruction, demonstration, exercises, dyad and triad activities, role plays. 

Programme Trainer

Kevin Ryan is an experienced conference speaker, workshop leader, facilitator and MC. He has twenty-five years of experience as a corporate trainer and fifteen years of experience as a professional speaker.

He speaks at conferences and seminars across Australia, New Zealand, Asia and in the UK specialising in the areas of sales negotiations, customer service, humour in business and communication skills. His clients include large corporations, government departments, and small to medium-size enterprises.

He has co-authored nine books on business communication skills and humour in business that are used extensively throughout Australia, New Zealand, Asia, the UK and South Africa. He writes regular columns on communication skills, sales & customer service and humour in business for several industry magazines. He is the creator of the TILT! Selling program.