Emotional Awareness and Active Listening in the Workplace

Emotional awareness plays a big role in either interpersonal or organizational communication, the ability of understanding feelings is the key to communication success, and so to communicate better, the person must be emotionally aware, focus on becoming aware of feelings and the feelings of people around in order to be a better communicator. And in some situations which are emotionally charged, individuals are supposed to communicate wisely and respect the employees and the workplace because some discussions can lead to unwanted behaviors just because of misunderstandings. Human beings have two ears and one mouth, and that is for a reason that we should listen twice more than we talk; an active listening is not just about hearing what others say, it is to listen carefully to the others and try to understand their speech; by becoming a better listener we will get more out of each conversation as well as convey an attitude of respect to the speaker. It is not simply muttering the occasional “uh-huh” or “right”, it means asking questions to clarify some points to understand what’s been said, and inject in the conversation some appropriate comments and try to understand what’s between the lines, because not all discussions are implicit. People sometimes talk shady-incomplete-explicit sentences waiting from the other part to understand the meaning behind the used words. Hence, active listening is a great powerful means of influence as to talk well.

Active listening involves reading a speaker’s body language and tone of voice, both. They can transmit different messages than those of the words used; the body language can convey more than words and voice tone may also reveal feelings that contradict the speaker’s words. A speaker whose gestures often and lean forward may be enthusiastic or excited; if he/she doesn’t make eye contact and looks down may be conveying discomfort or embarrassment. In fact, some commonly held beliefs about body language are not necessarily accurate. If a listener crossed his arms, that often believed to be a sign of resistance to the speaker’s words, it can only be a sign of the listener’s best comfortable sitting position. In the other hand, some people believe that unwillingness to make eye contact indicate lying. However, many people may lack eye contact due to shyness, or can look others in the eye and lie, or other reasons. Feedback is an important part of active listening; both verbal and nonverbal responses can improve listening. First, a speaker may nod their head, raise their eyebrows, or smile to show that they understand the listener; or they can use many verbal responses to show comprehension. In case of lack of understanding or the need for further information when listening, the listener might nod his/ her head to one side or furrow his eye-brows; he can also use some expression to improve his ability to understand the speaker. One element of feedback discussed previously is the recognition of the speaker’s feelings, especially when the speaker is emotional. Before listeners can effectively understand the topic of discussion, they must recognize any negative feelings that the speaker seems to feel.

People are different from one another; each one has his/her own personality and character, and especially the topic or the subject that can trigger negative emotions in them. For which the speaker should sense, in a way or another, the beginning of these emotions that can show up in the listener, who can be a client or a coworker or a superior in a business meeting. Also, the speaker needs to have the ability to control his/her own emotions, remain calm, and try to distract the listener to another subject or even minimize his emotional reaction, and especially show them that his/her emotions are taken into consideration. However, the speaker is often aware of the topics that can trigger a bad feeling in the listener, that’s why he/she needs to make sure to avoid it as possible. And the simple way to know and have an idea of these sensitive subjects is to listen carefully to the person to get a clue about his/her personality or point of view; this way it is much easier to have a safe business communication.

To better manage the negative reactions towards coworkers or towards customers it is necessary first of all to remain calm, to have the willingness of an active listening, without taking pre-judgment, while respecting what others want to communicate. In addition, it is also necessary to avoid any verbal or non-verbal reaction which can trigger problems and which only serves to aggravate the situation. On the other side, you have to share the trust and take into consideration the differences in mentalities, age, cultures …; because trust overcomes all obstacles and improves team spirit and self-esteem which has a direct impact on an individual’s ability to work in a team and to help others. Moreover, it is necessary to take the initiative by showing a minimum of respect first and as this will come the respect of the others later.

A strong business communication is very crucial in every company, it’s the key of successful teamwork, it helps to build a good relationship between the manager and employees which can likely help increase productivity. To improve your listening skills, you should have a critical business skill and should be emotionally aware so that you can read speakers’ emotions and recognize their feelings.