Effective Listening for Safety Professionals
By the late George Robotham
Effective listening for Safety Professionals
The OHS professional attends many meetings, facilitates a lot of learning and generally converses with a lot of people, often what is not said is as important as what is said. Being a good reader of body language is essential to get to the core of meaning. Effective listening is a vital skill.
Effective communication exists between 2 people when the process of interpreting and understanding the sender’s message is the same way the sender intended it.
Sources of difficulty by the sender-
Too low to be heard
Accent obscures clarity
Forgetting the purpose
Body language contradicts the verbal message
Sources of difficulty by the listener
Being pre-occupied
Listening mainly for an opening to get the floor
Letting your personal beliefs interfere with the message
Judging the speaker
Not asking for clarification
The 2 best types of listening are-
Attentive
You are genuinely interested in the communication, try hard to understand and actively listen.
Reflective
You re-state or paraphrase the message as you understand it and reflect back for verification and amplification. Reflective listening is a core counselling technique.