• Listening skillsear image by Connfetti from Fotolia.com
  
  One of the most overlooked areas of effective communication is the ability to listen. Many people are gifted at expressing their thoughts and feelings effectively but have very poor listening skills. Developing listening skills will affect every aspect of your life, including socially, professionally and in relationships. Identifying and following the proper steps to develop listening skills is the best way to improve your overall ability to communicate.
  
  

Remove Mental Noise

• Mental noise is anything that is mentally distracting you from fully engaging in listening. It can be your own thoughts, actual noise or physical distractions. Clearing your mind from other thoughts is the first step to developing listening skills. You can't effectively listen if your mind is thinking on more than one thing at a time.
  
  

Stay Committed to the Conversation

• It's easy to jump to conclusions in your mind about what the person is attempting to communicate without allowing him to finish. Part of staying committed to the conversation requires you as the listener to stay in the moment and process each word and thought being expressed. Jumping to conclusions too early can lead to confusion and communication breakdown in the conversation.
  
  

Ask for Clarity

• If there's something that's not clear to you, ask the person to repeat what she was saying. Many people are afraid to do this because they don't want the other person to think they weren't listening, but if you don't understand something, asking for clarity will benefit you and the person communicating.
  
  

Repeat the Communication Back

• After the person communicating is complete, repeat back the message in a summary to test your knowledge of what you heard. If there is missing information or a misunderstanding in the communication, it can easily be addressed and resolved. This provides an opportunity for both people to clarify and ensure that there hasn't been any missed information.
  
  

Follow-Up

• A good listener always follows up with information after it's communicated. Silence isn't an option for a good listener. When someone communicates information, he is looking for feedback or some sort of acknowledgment that the message has been heard and understood. The follow-up may be directly after the person stops talking or it can be in a few days after if there is a resolution to the issue at hand.