Sudha Murthy wishes that there were many horegallus in this world. Considering the spirit of her words, prepare a short speech on the topic “The importance of listening others with empathy.”
Answers
When you listen to understand, you pay attention to the thoughts and feelings of the person speaking.
Empathetic listening gives us the tools to see a problem, understand the effect it is having, and find a solution. In order to help someone, we must first understand the problem from his or her point of view. As Stephen Covey puts it, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” When we set aside our own thoughts and opinions, we begin to learn what others are thinking and feeling. Then, and only then, can we begin to help someone in need.
Practice the four stages of empathetic listening. Alright, so we know that empathetic listening requires good listening habits and the ability to understand other people. But what is empathetic listening, really? Empathetic listening can be broken down into four stages, or steps.
Stage 1: Copy what is being said. Simply repeat what you hear in order to get further understanding. Repeat it exactly as you think you heard it.
Stage 2: Say what you hear. Repeat the words that were said without adding anything new.
Stage 3: Reflect on the feeling. Try to understand the feeling expressed in what was said, going beyond what you think you heard.
Stage 4: Restate what was said and think about the feeling. This combines stages 2 and 3 in order to understand the message.
While empathetic listening takes time and work, it does not take nearly as much time and effort as it does to correct a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding happens when a person fails to understand correctly the meaning or intent of another person’s words or actions. Or, more simply put, the message meant to be sent is different from the message received.
We’ve all been involved in misunderstandings. Maybe you thought you heard someone say one thing, but they actually meant something else. The trouble with a misunderstanding is that you can’t begin to correct it until you realize that there has been a misunderstanding. Empathetic listening can help prevent or keep misunderstandings from happening. The better you listen and the harder you work to understand what others are thinking and feeling, the less likely you are to misunderstand them.