Maverick Indonesia

“I never realized that listening is a skill…”

by Arif Pranoto from Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB); an intern at Maverick from June-July 2008

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Two Fridays ago I attended one of Maverick’s sharing sessions.

Sharing sessions is a weekly activity at Maverick where someone shares their insights, knowledge or experience on almost any subject. As an intern I was of course looking forward to it as an opportunity to broaden my horizons - and also the snacks that are always great.

I attended the session along with Mba Surti, Mba Nadia, and Mba Dewi.

The topic for that day was on Listening Skills and it was led by Ong. We were given some tips and tricks that could help us be better listeners. The essence of this session was how to be an active listener. I expected to figure out how good I am as a listener and also how to improve my listening quality. The session really opened my mind (and ears?) about listening and I believe that I’ve really improved my listening skill through just one session.

One of the things I remembered was pseudo-listening. What is pseudo-listening?

Well do you ever notice that sometimes we act like we’re listening but we’re not really listening? We all do that sometimes, especially if we are not interested in the topic. When you do something like that, it’s called pseudo-listening.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing to do. Sometimes we do pseudo-listening to appear that we respect the other person, but the important thing is to recognize it for what it is and that it’s better to avoid it. The bottom line is that its OK to pseudo-listen sometimes but you should work at really listening to the other person if you want to be a good communicator.

Another thing I picked up: a willing listener is not always a good listener. Maybe you are willing to listen, but you may not appear to be a good listener.

A good listener is someone who practices active listening skills. One of the skills is paraphrasing, or putting what you have just heard in your own words. By paraphrasing, you are sending a message to the speaker that you are listening to him. Another benefit of paraphrasing, I learned, is that it helps you avoiding misunderstanding what was said. For example, if someone gives you an instruction, it’s a good idea to paraphrase so that you are clear that the speaker means what you have understood.

Another skill of active listening is through the use of affirmative gestures, like nodding. Nodding to what’s said will send a message to the speaker that you are listening and are supportive.

We also learned that there are blocks to being a good listener. Blocks can arise from your preconceived opinions about a topic or your judgement of the speaker, the environment (too noisy, for instance) or - oh those snacks! - food to a hungry person. When an environment block is the problem it is a good idea to move the conversation to a more conducive place

Then there are the personal blocks. Some of them may have to do with your health or state of mind. If you’re sick or lacking in sleep, for instance, it is a good idea to reschedule an important conversation rather than go through with it and pseudo listen.

Hmm… I never realized that listening is a skill. All this time I thought that I was a good listener and that listening is natural and does not involve skills. This lesson is some kind of wake up call for me to be a better listener.

I was interning in Maverick hoping to improve my social and communication skills. Well, I learned a lot about that and I believe that I have improved my interpersonal communications skills. Even though my major is nothing related to PR, I’m here to improve myself as a whole person. Learning a lot about communication skills and a bit about communications strategy is something that could help give a boost to my career when I start working at an oil-related company.

This is maybe the last of your hearing from me as I’m on my 4th and last week interning at Maverick. It’s been a blast for me experiencing a lot of activity and learning a lot about communication skills too. It feels great to be able to intern in such a great yet local PR company. They have a great work discipline yet a friendly Asian culture.

I’m Arif Pranoto; signing off now. Goodbye.

Tags: arif pranoto, intern, ITB, listening skills, Maverick