EFFECTIVE LISTENING TECHNIQUES

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Effective Listening Techniques
• Encouraging
• Paraphrasing
• Review Exercise 1
• Noting and Reflecting Feelings
• Review Exercise 2
• Summarizing
• Review Exercise 3

EFFECTIVE LISTENING TECHNIQUES

Now let's continue with some techniques you can use to demonstrate that you are truly listening. The effective implementation of such techniques will contribute to a quality outcome to your telephone conversation:

1. encouraging
2. paraphrasing
3. reflecting feelings
4. summarizing

All of these techniques would be used while you were questioning to demonstrate that you are attending to and hear the client. Clients will open up to individuals who seem to care and who are good listeners.

Let's start with the definitions:

ENCOURAGING

Definition: The use of a variety of verbal and non-verbal means to encourage others to continue talking. On the phone you might say: "Uh-huh","I see", or repeat key words uttered, etc. (Non-verbal methods will be covered in another part of your course.)

The benefits of encouraging:

• Encouraging utterances communicate to the client that you are really listening.
• A restatement of key words may direct a client's progress.

As an example, read the following statement: "I'm sure that the children would move their game. I get along very well with them. You know they are very nice kids. In fact, I usually give them cookies in the late afternoon. I haven't the strength to go outside and tell them. They don't know I am ill."

If you repeated the word "game", likely the client would talk a little about the children's game. On the other hand, if you repeated the word "cookies", The client might talk about the type of cookies she bakes. If you repeated the word "ill", you might find out more about the clients illness, which could be very important to the resolution of the problem.

If you restated the phrase "the children don't know I am ill", the client may confirm that their complaint is not about the children, but the noise, which again is very important to a quality resolution to this situation.

PARAPHRASING

Definition: Restating what the client said in different words to allow the client to confirm that you have understood what they intended.

The benefits of paraphrasing:

• Encouraging the client to continue because you are listening.
• Stopping the client from continuing to repeat the same statement over and over.
• Encouraging the client to explore and clarify.

The tone of your voice will also convey to clients whether you want them to continue or further explore and clarify or move on to a different point of discussion. Similarly, non-verbal gestures, in face to face contact, will have this effect.

An accurate paraphrase usually includes the following four elements:

1. A sentence stem (examples: looks like... sounds like... are you saying that?... do you mean that?)
2. A repetition of the main ideas using some of the key words used by the client to describe the situation or person.
3. The essence of, or a summary of what the client said. Transform what may have been confused statements into succinct, meaningful statements.
4. A check for accuracy. A question, at the end of the paraphrase, to ensure that you have understood correctly.

REVIEW EXERCISE 1

Read the following statement:

"I'm sure that the children would move their game. I get along very well with them. You know they are very nice kids. In fact, I usually provide them with cookies in the late afternoon. I haven't the strength to go outside and tell them. They don't know I am ill."

1. Note one key word you would use for encouragement.
   
   
2. Write two restatements of key words to encourage Mrs. Green to continue.
   
   
3. Paraphrase using the four elements described above (Stem, Repetition of key words, Summary, and Check for accuracy)

   Click here to check your answers.

   
   

NOTING AND REFLECTING FEELINGS

Definition: Identifying and sorting out clients' feelings can contribute greatly to determining appropriate action to be taken in any situation. Start by using affective words to label the emotions. For example: angry, happy, scared, confused, annoyed, sad, guilty, worried.

To help you, use:

• words used by the client;
• emotions that are expressed through tone or words though not specifically spoken.
• When interacting with a client face to face, you should also note:
• non-verbal emotional cues, and
• mixed verbal and non-verbal emotional cues that seem contradictory and indicate confusion.

While paraphrasing is concerned with feeding back the essence of what was said, reflection of feeling feeds feelings back to the client. This becomes an opportunity to show that you empathize with the client, that you care about fixing the problem and reducing any inconvenience.

Empathy is not:

• evaluating other points of view.
• probing to gain consistency with your point of view.
• interpreting the behaviour of others.

Empathy is :

• gaining an accurate understanding of the message and the feelings behind the message.

Clients want to be heard, understood, valued and acknowledged.

Let's look again at the client's statement:

"I'm sure that the children would move their game. I get along very well with them. You know they are very nice kids. In fact I usually provide them with cookies in the late afternoon. I haven't the strength to go outside and tell them. They don't know I am ill."

REVIEW EXERCISE 2

1. Reflect back to the client their feelings about the children.

   Click here to check your answer.

SUMMARIZING

Definition: This is very similar to paraphrasing but includes a restatement of more or all of a conversation and in some cases previous conversations as well. Example: A week after the client's call, you call to see how things went.

Cst. Morse: "Mrs. Green (the client)? Hi! This is Cst. Morse. How are you feeling? The last time we spoke, you were feeling ill and needed help in asking the children playing outside to move their game to the park so that you could get some rest. We had the parent of one of the children assist. How did that work out?"

Mrs. Green (the client): "Cst. Morse. How kind of you to call to see how I am doing. I am feeling much better. Mrs. Graham, Tom's mother, took care of everything once you called her. She had the children move their game and nursed me back to health. She was very kind. She was going to ask the children to play only in the park, but I told her that I would miss having their laughter around. She suggested that she call me to make sure its O.K. before they begin their games. I thought that was an excellent idea since I could say no if I felt particularly tired."

Cst. Morse: "I'm glad to hear you are feeling better. It sounds like you are satisfied with how things went. You get to see the children but only when you feel up to it. Have I understood you correctly?"

Mrs. Green (the client): "I am delighted with how things turned out and I am very grateful for your assistance."

Note that you start by showing concern for the client's health. You then summarize the key points of your last conversation and end with a check.

REVIEW EXERCISE 3

1. State what the client's problem was in your own words.

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2. List the key pieces of information you acquired in your discussion.

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3. Given your analysis of the information acquired, what alternative courses of action were available to you? What was the mutually acceptable response? (See section on Summarizing.)

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4. What did your follow-up indicate to you in terms of client satisfaction?

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© RCMP-GRC
ecdp0073.iim
May 14, 1998

Revised: July 10, 2000