Overview

A professional manager gets results through others. Consequently, managers spend a major portion of their days communicating. Approximately half of this time is spent listening to others. In addition, many engineers today must be able to gather information from a wide range of sources, from colleagues, technical support staff, and more importantly from their clients and the general public.

Listening requires careful attention. Sometimes people don't pay careful attention when someone is speaking to them, thinking instead about how to press their point when the other person stops speaking. Here are some of the ways managers and engineers can benefit from listening well:

• Listening might solve the problem for the other person. Giving someone a chance to talk through problems can sometimes clarify their thinking or provide them necessary emotional release.
  
  
• Listening helps solve problems and resolve disagreements. When people listen to each other and understand each other's points of view, they are able to resolve their disagreements and reach mutually beneficial solutions much more quickly. 
  
  
• Listening leads to better work and cooperation from others. When people feel their manager is really interested in them and their problems, their thoughts, and their opinions, they respect not only the manager but the organization that the manager represents. This can also be true of those who interact with engineers. 
  
  
• Listening helps managers and engineers make better decisions. Through listening, managers and engineers can draw upon the experience of the people who work with them, and get information they would not otherwise have.
  
  
• Listening can help individuals do a better job. By asking questions and listening to people they work with or for, managers get suggestions as to how they can do a better job of managing.
  
  
• Listening can prevent trouble. Frequently when managers or engineers open a conversation before listening to the other person in the discussion, they compromise themselves, make decisions which they later wish they could withdraw, state criticism they later regret, or commit themselves to actions they can't or won't carry out. 
  
  
• Listening provides time to think. The average speaking rate is about 125 words per minute (speech speed) and a person's capacity to listen is about 400-600 words a minute (thinking speed). Thus, while you are listening, about 75 percent of your time is free. You can use this extra time to improve your understanding of what is being said, to develop answers, and to make decisions. Asking questions not only provides more information, but can be used to gain time to think.

In order to listen better, you must focus on what is being said, rather than allowing yourself to be distracted by your environment, or allowing your mind to wander. If you catch yourself wandering, you can refocus quickly and, if necessary, ask speakers a question that will give them the opportunity to repeat what they just said.

You should also repeat in your mind what is being said, in your own words, and think about what is being said. Select the important from the unimportant. Train yourself to seek the main idea. You can learn to listen effectively by separating the main point from the material that supports it. Reiterating the main points for the speaker is one way to assure that you have listened effectively.

Another way to improve your listening skills is to remove listening "blocks" caused by your feelings about the speaker or the subject matter. Something as simple as having a bad day can affect your ability to listen to someone, even though the subject might be very important. While you can't change how you feel on a given day, you can learn to recognize your feelings and consider the feelings of others. You can also isolate any prejudices you might have which distort your thinking. To do this, you must become as neutral as possible when listening. Reiterating the main points, again, is one way to not only convince yourself, but the speaker, that you have listened and you have set your bias aside.

Removing listening blocks caused by feelings is not always easy. Successful managers and engineers take their time when speaking (for example, not answering immediately, especially if angry), recognize their feelings about the speaker, and concentrate on the meaning of what is said. If the speaker is agitated or angry, a successful manager or engineer must find a way to calm these emotions. Managers or engineers might let the speaker know that they can see the speaker is angry and want to understand better the reasons for their anger. This redirects the speaker's focus from their anger to their concerns, and helps create an environment where a problem can be understood and a solution crafted.

Pay attention to your body language; it speaks as loudly as words. Here are some examples of gestures and the meanings they convey.

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