LISTENING SKILL SURVEY

Listening Skill Survey

Instructions: Place a check mark next to the habit if you use that habit 50% to 100% of your listening time.

____ 1. If a topic is uninteresting, I tune it out.

____ 2. I work to minimize distractions in my listening environment by putting my phone

on voice mail, turning down the radio, or going to a quiet office for conversations.

____ 3. I tend to respond emotionally to arguments with which I disagree or language I

find objectionable.

____ 4. I refuse to allow unexpected distractions to interfere with my concentration and

focus my mind on the speaker and his/her content.

____ 5. I evaluate and judge the wisdom of what I have heard before checking my

interpretation with the speaker.

____ 6. I work to ignore a speaker's mannerisms or delivery and focus my attention on

the message.

____ 7. I develop arguments to refute what a speaker is saying so I can answer quickly

when he/she is done talking.

____ 8. I accept the emotional sentiments expressed by the speaker and use these to help

me understand the content of the message.

____ 9. I am easily distracted by the annoying or affected elements of a speaker's delivery.

____ 10. I try not to let emotional language or strong disagreement with a speaker's ideas

interfere with my concentration on the message.

____ 11. I don't write the gist of important conversations on paper for future reference.

____ 12. I try to listen for something useful in even the most dull topics.

____ 13. I am uncomfortable with emotional displays and try to ignore these elements of a message.

____ 14. I look at a speaker's face, eyes, body posture, and movement, and pay attention to other

nonverbal cues while listening.

____ 15. I tend to drift into other topics and concerns while listening.

____ 16. I use speaker's pauses and the time he/she spends forming ideas to identify the structure

of the ideas, summarize the content, or anticipate where the argument is headed.

____ 17. I ask questions about what I've heard before letting the speaker know what I have

heard and understood.

____ 18. I take notes on the major themes covered in my conversations.

____ 19. I think about other topics and concerns while listening.

____ 20. It is easy for me to ignore the unusual mannerisms of a speaker and focus on the message.

____ 21. I tend to drift into my own thoughts if the speaker speaks slowly or seems to take an unusual

path to his/her points.

____ 22. I often paraphrase or summarize what I have heard before making my own comments.

A Plan for Improvement

In this survey, the even-numbered questions represent effective listening habits. The odd-numbered questions represent ineffective listening habits. Thus, all of the even-numbered statements that you checked represent your most effective habits while all the odd-numbered statements that you checked represent your most ineffective listening habits.

Look over your analysis and determine your three most ineffective listening habits. In the space below, write down those three habits.

Now that you have identified your worst listening habits, develop a plan to change your single worst habit. Remember that changing ingrained habits requires conscious attention! Practice your new listening behaviors as often as it takes to become habitual.

To overcome the habit, I plan to do the following: