The researchers Larry Barker and Kittie Watson distinguish four different types of listening. They found that every person has a listening preference. They also noticed that this listening preference can vary from situation to situation. To learn to listen well, it is important to know what type of listening you are so that you know of your own strengths and weaknesses. In addition, it is also practical to make the other listening types your own so that you can use the best listening style per situation.
Self-Reflection of the Self-Gre
A person speaks about 125 to 150 words per minute. We can listen to about 300 words per minute. This means that there is room between the number of spoken words and the number of words we can hear. We can use that space for things other than listening and that is difficult. You can easily be distracted in this way.
The extra space can also be used for self-reflection when listening. What am I thinking? Why am I not paying attention? Don’t I find the story interesting? Or the way it is told?
Listening preferences
In America, there has been research on listening styles and listening habits of people. The researchers Larry Barker and Kittie Watson mapped the different listening preferences of people in the study. Listening preferences show how, to whom, where and what kind of information we prefer to listen to.
Four listening types
The study identified four types of listening:
- Human-centered listeners
- Trade-oriented listeners
- Content-oriented listeners
- Timely oriented listeners
The four listening preferences each have their weaknesses and weaknesses. It is important to determine which type of listening you are. It then teaches you to determine in which pitfalls you can fall into communication with others. It would be even better to master all four of the listening type, so that you can use a certain listening style per situation to listen even better to the speaker.
By listening carefully, the speaker feels accepted and can tell his story in a free way. The speaker feels taken seriously, he is listened to, he can tell his story without talking through it.
The human-centered listener
The human-centered listener is a human being. He notices people’s emotions and moods. He thinks it is important to build a relationship and is interested in others. This is also the pitfall of this type: he is often touched by the emotions and feelings of the interlocutor. The people-oriented listener wants to be in personal conversation and can be too intrusive.
The action-oriented listener
The action-oriented listener would like to act immediately. He would like to have concise discussions and preferably just summaries. This type quickly draws its conclusions, likes to get ahead of you and does not want to listen to long-winded speakers. He will encourage others to get to the heart of the matter quickly.
The content-oriented listener
The content-oriented listener wants a lot of concrete information: spreadsheets, figures, statistics and graphs. He would like to discuss to draw the right plan, often this type already knows a lot about the subject that allows him to come across intimidating. The content-oriented listener can also get bogged down in detail, which takes it (too) a lot of time before coming to a conclusion or decision.
The time-oriented listener
The time-oriented listener manages the time efficiently. He hunts up speakers, so on the one hand no time is wasted on long-winded speakers, but on the other hand, there is little room for creativity because of the time pressure he imposes. He has no patience to let people speak and regularly interrupts the speaker. It is important for the time-oriented listener that he gets the most important information first. Any examples and side paths are often wasted on him.
Control of all listening types
It is nice when you can use all four types of listening. Communication with others can greatly improve. For each situation, you can then estimate which listening type best suits the situation. On the other hand, you can also better estimate as a speaking what listening type in front of you and adjusting your story to this.
Read more
- An effective listening
- The WIER listening model: Insight into listening behavior