The Art of Listening: A Crucial Factor to Develop Effective Communication

In a conference titled ‘effective communication among the staff, clientele and colleagues’ a psychology expert said that in personal interactions effective communication develop only if people can give context-appropriate flexible feedback while evaluating the situation i.e., they give different feedbacks in different situations.

According to the public relations of the Representative Office of the Supreme Leader at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, the first conference from a series of conferences specifically organized for the Medical University staff in the new year was held on April 29^th on behalf of the Representative Office of the Supreme Leader and in cooperation with the Department of Human Resources Training and Improvement in Ebne Sina Hall of this university.

In this conference, Hamid Sadeghian discussed the issue of effective communication among the staff, clientele and colleagues and besides defining the concept of communication, described its importance, the main obstacles against its development, and the ways to foster and maintain an effective relationship with different groups in the society.

Stating that ‘any interaction which involves transmitting a message is called a relationship’, he added: “this message transition is not necessarily verbal and can be done in non-verbal forms such as: facial and bodily expressions, tone of voice, etc.”

“In non-verbal communications in which the interlocutor indirectly makes inferences about our message, we should be more cautious and take into account various factors such as age, gender, culture, family background, etc. while providing feedback”, said the family expert.

With regard to the ways to improve effective verbal communication, Sadeghian said: “the shorter and the more comprehensive our message is and in more gentle words it is transferred, the more effective it will be; moreover, selecting the proper time and place to transfer the message and to understand conceptual frameworks of the interlocutor affects the extent and quality of communication. This is why sometimes a useful message provokes negative feedback because it was not presented in an appropriate situation.

He mentioned ‘the art of listening’ as a remarkable ability to establish effective communication and added: “many of us think that hearing others’ words is the same as listening to them, while this behavior (listening) requires particular conditions such as: being in front of the interlocutor, asking them, paying continuous attention to their words, and providing feedback (verbal and non-verbal). Psychologically, this is called active listening and could assure the speaker that the listener accompanies him or her in all parts of the speech”.

It should be noted that the second conference specifically organized for Mashhad University of Medical University staff was held on May 3^rd with the topic ‘the family and the media”.