65) Listening is one of the most important career skills you can develop.
66) The responsibility for ensuring that a message is effectively understood falls mostly on the
speaker, not on the listener.
67) According to communication expert Susan Peterson, good listening is 80 percent to 90 percent
of what makes a leader effective.
68) It has been estimated that a salesperson can prevent about four minutes of dealing with
objections for every minute he or she spends listening.
69) Most people do NOT need formal training in listening because listening is a natural ability.
70) Conversational partners typically achieve 90 percent to 95 percent accuracy in interpreting
each other’s remarks.
71) Impaired hearing is an example of an environmental barrier to listening.
72) Most listeners can process information at approximately 500 words per minute, four times
faster than the average rate of speaking.
73) Multicommunicating reduces your ability to listen well.
74) One factor that contributes to ineffective listening is our tendency to think that our ideas are
more valuable than the ideas of others.
75) Relational listeners tend to judge people based on how well organized and concise their
remarks are.
76) Task-oriented listeners focus primarily on speakers’ emotional needs in order to help them.
77) Critical listeners can be valuable team players because they can point out possible errors that
need to be corrected.
78) Of the four listening styles, the “task-oriented” style is the best to use in any business setting.
79) Mindful listeners are clear about their listening goals, and they apply the best style of listening
for that goal.
80) According to the 20/80 rule, sales personnel should spend the first 20 percent of a sales
appointment listening to the customer and the last 80 percent of the time explaining the benefits of
the product.
81) Questioning usually is NOT a good technique for helping a speaker who comes to you with a
problem, since questions tend to increase confusion.
82) After you paraphrase a speaker’s meaning, you should invite the speaker to verify that you
have interpreted the message meaning correctly.
83) A listener can paraphrase the content, the intent, and/or the feelings of a speaker’s message.
84) Nonverbal cues can help us tune in to a speaker’s feelings and attitude.
85) A telephone log can note things that were not said or done, as well as matters that were
attended to.
86) If you are writing down notes about during a conversation, the person talking is likely to feel
that you do not care enough to focus on them while they speak.
87) We should be sure we understand a speaker’s message before we evaluate its quality.
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88) When we listen critically, we consider whether speakers provide enough valid evidence to
support their claims.
89) The stronger an emotional appeal, the more likely it is to be true.
90) Identify a career area you might be interested in pursuing. Explain at least three specific ways
that effective listening could help you succeed in that career. Describe a plan for improving those
three aspects of your listening.
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91) Identify and explain four myths (faulty assumptions) about listening. For each, write a
statement that counters the myth and reflects the truth about listening.
92) Identify three listening barriers that present the greatest challenge in preventing you from
listening effectively. Suggest a possible remedy for each. Support your remedies. Depict specific
examples of how you could enact these in your own life.
93) Describe four concrete ways that culture and/or gender differences influence how and to whom
we listen. What are three specific actions listeners can take to minimize the detrimental effects of
these differences?
94) Which of the listening style preferences do you fit most closely? Identify the major
characteristics of this style. In what types of situations is this style most useful? In what types of
situations might this style be a drawback?
95) There are several skills you can practice to listening to understand, including withholding
judgment, talking and interrupting less, asking questions, paraphrasing, attending to nonverbal
cues, and taking notes. Select one of these skills to describe. Explain why it is important, identify
potential mistakes we might make when we are attempting to practice this skill, and illustrate the
skill with an example.
96) Answer the following about using questions in conversation:
(a) Why are sincere questions an important element of listening? Write two examples of sincere
questions a manager could ask a subordinate. How would these questions contribute to effective
listening?
(b) What are counterfeit questions, and why should they be avoided? Write two examples of
counterfeit questions a manager should avoid asking a subordinate. What might be the negative
impact of each question?
97) Define paraphrasing, and explain its purpose. Describe three types of paraphrasing, and give
an example of each.
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98) Two guidelines for effective listening are to withhold judgment and analyze the speaker’s
evidence. Compare and contrast these two guidelines, explaining when each one is appropriate and
how to accomplish each one. Illustrate your answer with examples.
99) Imagine that you have been asked to give a five minute speech in class about listening to
evaluate. Create an outline for the body of the speech, using “analyze the speaker’s evidence” as
your first main point and “examine emotional appeals” as your second main point. Identify at least
four elements of supporting data for each main point.
100) Pretend that you have just taken over as the manager of an ice cream parlor. Your district
supervisor has told you that sales numbers are good at this location, but morale among the
employees is poor. You want to find out why morale is poor and what you can do to improve it.
Explain what listening style you would use as you meet with your employees and why you think it
is the best approach to solving your morale problem.