DKA Toolkit - Courses

The Effective Listening Masterclass      

Mastering the Most Important Skill in the Leadership and Influence Toolkit

Do you often feel you are not getting your point across? Do you find yourself saying “You’re not hearing me!” in a heating exchange with a co-worker? Has someone said to you “You said that already!” during an argument? Have you noticed your irritation with long pointless meetings and discussions? Well, you are not alone! These are all signs that you are not being listened to…and you are not listening to the other party. Listening goes both ways.

Your work environment is filled with the complexities of hierarchy, individual versus team needs, deadlines and other critical demands. These stressors can drive you to use counterproductive approaches to be heard. This course provides you with a clear understanding of how to combat the counterproductive patters which gets in the way of you listening effectively, which in turn increases the likelihood that you are listened to.

If you’re looking for a cookie cutter listening skills course, which deals with cliche verbal and non-verbal listening skills and the like, then you’re in the wrong place! This course is tackled through the lens of effectively listening to have influence over an outcome, person or situation…by effectively we mean 1) listening to respond to the true meaning of the other party’s communication thus significantly shortening conversations. 2) Eliminate misunderstanding by removing the noise of miscommunication. 3) Understanding what others are hearing from us – what our disposition is saying to them. 4) Learning to listen to what we think we already know the other party is about to say.

Participants will learn:

• How to responding to what was intended versus what was verbalized.
• How to differentiate Hearing from Listening.
• The relationship between Active and Strategic Listening.
• The Time Management Case for Effective Listening.
• How to wade through the noise to get to the point.
• How to interpret your own counterproductive patterns of behavior when communicating.
• How to recognize the effects of the silence on listening.
• How to best utilize four key components of the Effective Listening process - hearing, interpreting evaluating, and responding – to influence an outcome.
• What listening tactics are most counterproductive to your desired outcome.

This course will help if you:

• Want to improve your communication at work, home or socially.
• Want to be taken seriously by your boss.
• Are not getting your job done in the time allotted.
• Want to improve customer satisfaction…and loyalty in your organization.
• Are part of a project team and there is no appointed leader.
• Find it difficult to get your point across in certain situations.
• Work with a team member whose behavior you find disruptive or overly arduous.
• Seek to influence a team, supervisor or process.

Accompanying Free Psychological Assessment!

The Listening Skills Inventory (Assessment) (LISI)

Upon completion of this class, please email me ([email protected]) for access to your accompanying free online psychological assessment – The Listening Skills Inventory (LISI). 

Before mastering the skill of latent listening, you must first master the skill of manifest listening. For this reason it’s important to provide you the opportunity to gain self-awareness and insight on whether your tendencies and behavioral traits may help or hinder that process. Some of the awareness building factors the LISI Assessment considers are:

• Physical Attentiveness: Use of verbal and non-verbal language to indicate attentiveness.
• Mental Attentiveness: Mentally “tuning-in” to a speaker, and being willing and able to offer undivided attention.
• External Distractions: Ability to pay attention despite background noise.
• Conversation Flow: Tendency to interrupt or otherwise disrupt conversation flow.
• Speaker to Listener Transition: Level of comfort with being the listener rather than speaker.
• Body Language: Use of body language to convey interest and attentiveness.
• Internal Distractions: Ability to pay attention despite internal conflict.
• Attention Span: Ability to pay attention to a speaker for an extended period of time.
• Hearing a Person Out: Ability to listen with an open mind.

The assessment’s resulting insight, coupled with the strategies and techniques provided in the course provide the perfect compliment to advancing your ability to “Master the Skill of Latent Listening.”