Self Exercise: Assessing Your Listening Skills
Objectives
1. To assess your listening skills.
2. To develop a personal development plan aimed at increasing your listening skills.
Introduction
Listening is a critical component of effective communication. Unfortunately, research and case studies suggest that
many of us are not very good at actively listening. This is particularly bad in light of the fact that managers spend more
time listening than they do speaking or writing. This exercise provides you the opportunity to assess your listening
skills and develop a plan for improvement.
Instructions
The following statements reflect various habits we use when listening to others. For each statement, indicate the extent
to which you agree or disagree with it by selecting one number from the scale provided. Circle your response for each
statement. Remember, there are no right or wrong answers. After completing the survey, add up your total score for the
17 items, and record it in the space provided.
Listening Skills Survey
1 = strongly disagree
2 = disagree
3 = neither agree nor disagree
4 = agree
5 = strongly agree
1. I daydream or think about other things when listening to others.
1—2—3—4—5
2. I do not mentally summarize the ideas being communicated by a speaker.
1—2—3—4—5
3. I do not use a speaker’s body language or tone of voice to help interpret what
he or she is saying.
1—2—3—4—5
4. I listen more for facts than overall ideas during classroom lectures.
1—2—3—4—5
5. I tune out dry speakers.
1—2—3—4—5
6. I have a hard time paying attention to boring people.
1—2—3—4—5
7. I can tell whether someone has anything useful to say before he or she
finishes communicating a message.
1—2—3—4—5
8. I quit listening to a speaker when I think he or she has nothing interesting to say.
1—2—3—4—5
9. I get emotional or upset when speakers make jokes about issues or things that are
important to me.
1—2—3—4—5
10. I get angry or distracted when speakers use offensive words.
1—2—3—4—5
11. I do not expend a lot of energy when listening to others.
1—2—3—4—5
12. I pretend to pay attention to others even when I’m not really listening.
1—2—3—4—5
13. I get distracted when listening to others.
1—2—3—4—5
14. I deny or ignore information and comments that go against my thoughts
and feelings.
15. I do not seek opportunities to challenge my listening skills.
1—2—3—4—5
1—2—3—4—5
16. I do not pay attention to the visual aids used during lectures.
1—2—3—4—5
17. I do not take notes on handouts when they are provided.
1—2—3—4—5
Total score _ _____
Preparing a Personal Development Plan
1. Use the following norms to evaluate your listening skills:
17–34 = good listening skills
35–53 = moderately good listening skills
54–85 = poor listening skills
How would you evaluate your listening skills?
2. Do you agree with the assessment of your listening skills? Why or why not?
3. The 17-item listening skills survey was developed to assess the extent to which you use the keys to effective
listening presented in Table 14–3. Use Table 14–3 and the development plan format shown below to prepare your
development plan. First, identify the five statements from the listening skills survey that received your highest
ratings—high ratings represent low skills. Record the survey numbers in the space provided in the development plan.
Next, compare the content of these survey items to the descriptions of bad and good listeners shown in Table 14–3.
This comparison will help you identify the keys to effective listening being measured by each survey item. Write down
the keys to effective listening that correspond to each of the five items you want to improve. Finally, write down
specific actions or behaviors that you can undertake to improve the listening skill being considered.
Development Plan
Survey Items
#
#
#
#
#
Key to Effective Listening
I want to Improve
Action Steps Required
(What Do You Need to Do
to Build Listening Skills
for This Listening
Characteristic?)