The Value of Listening Well

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Listening affects more than your ability to communicate: it enables you to live a productive, satisfying, and healthy life.

Repeated or duplicated tasks, missed opportunities, lost clients, botched orders, misunderstood instructions, and forgotten appointments can cost companies money—as can failing to listen to customers.

Effective Listening Helps Your Career. Effective listening is greatly valued and rewarded professionally. Employers report that effective listening is related to job satisfaction, performance, and achievement of the organization’s goals (Cooper, 1997; Gray, 2010). Surveys of Fortune 500 company personnel reveal that listening is one of the most important skills that a college graduate can possess (Wolvin & Coakley, 1991). In the professional world, employees who are good listeners are seen as alert, confident, mature, and judicious. Employers also value employees who can listen effectively in diverse contexts. For example, a manager expects her assistant to listen carefully to instructions for a project but also to listen for irritation or confusion in an e-mail from a customer. Similarly, employees must listen carefully to others during teleconferences and WebEx meetings, despite distractions like background noise or malfunctioning equipment (Bentley, 2000).

Moreover, to be strong leaders, established professionals need to listen to others, make them feel heard, and respond effectively to them (Stillion Southard & Wolvin, 2009). The CBS reality series Undercover Boss features CEOs who go “undercover” in their companies. Unrecognized by employees, they listen more than anything—by asking questions, hearing about the reality of work life for people at all levels of the organization, and probing for insights into what works and what doesn’t. In most instances, the CEO returns to make positive changes in the company’s operations and to improve communication with employees as well.

Effective Listening Saves Time and Money. One reason that professionals value listening skills so much is that good listeners save time by acting quickly and accurately on information presented to them. You comprehend more when you listen well (Rubin, Hafer, & Arata, 2000), so if you actively listen to your instructor’s remarks about an upcoming exam, you can save time by studying more effectively. If you listen carefully when someone gives you driving directions, you’ll be more likely to arrive at your destination on time.

Businesses lose millions of dollars each year because of listening mistakes alone (Rappaport, 2010; Steil, Summerfield, & de Mare, 1983). Repeated or duplicated tasks, missed opportunities, lost clients, botched orders, misunderstood instructions, and forgotten appointments can cost companies money—as can failing to listen to customers. In 2009, the makers of Tropicana orange juice changed its product packaging, and loyal customers deluged the company with irate letters and e-mails. Company officials quickly responded and reverted to the recognizable label (an orange with a straw protruding from it), but they could have avoided the costly fiasco if they had listened to their customers in the first place (Wiesenfeld, Bush, & Sikdar, 2010).

Effective Listening Creates Opportunities. Good listeners don’t just avoid mistakes; they find opportunities that others might miss. A real estate agent who listens to what a young couple is looking for in their first home and comprehends their financial constraints will more likely find them the right home. An entrepreneur who listens to fellow diners at a popular restaurant complain that no place in town serves vegetarian fare might find an opportunity for a new business. Even writing a textbook like the one you are reading involves listening. As authors, we must listen to our peers, who help us decide what topics and scholarship to include in the book. We must listen to the students who have reviewed our manuscript to find out what kinds of examples and issues will be most relevant to them. And we must listen to our editors, who help us make the material more clear and engaging.

Effective Listening Strengthens Relationships. Have you ever had a friend who just talked about himself or herself without ever allowing you to share your own thoughts or concerns? Does your roommate or a colleague send text messages or update Facebook while you’re talking? They may be hearing, but they’re almost certainly not listening. And your relationship may be suffering as a result.

In new relationships, the partners must listen competently to learn more about each other; failure to do this usually results in less attraction and more negative emotions (Knobloch & Solomon, 2002). As your relationships progress, listening remains a top priority. For example, you probably won’t continue making self-disclosures to a friend who doesn’t listen to you. Similarly, you can significantly reduce your partner’s stress in a challenging situation by letting him or her talk through difficult events while you listen (Lewis & Manusov, 2009).