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Key Takeaways
- Active–empathic listening helps managers build trust, show empathy, and strengthen workplace relationships.
- Accurately interpreting and remembering what is communicated to you ensures effective leadership.
- Verbal and non-verbal acknowledgements, such as gestures and facial expressions, communicate attentiveness and understanding.
Test Your Active–Empathic Listening Skills
Effective communication relies heavily on active–empathic listening, which involves not just hearing words but truly understanding the complete message. When we focus on listening, we gain valuable information, build trust, show empathy, and strengthen relationships, both at work and in life.
We’ve used research from the Mindtools Impact and Insights Team to create an 11-question assessment tool, to help you assess how well you actively and empathically listen to others.
Your Self-Assessment
Coming up are 11 questions that ask you about your active–empathic listening skills. To answer them, consider your experiences over the past three months.
Be as honest with yourself as you can. There are no right or wrong responses, and you’ll have a chance to review and change your answers before you submit them.
Look at the statements below and choose how much you agree with each by selecting the most appropriate answer.
When you have completed the diagnostic, press “Calculate my total.”
Your Result
Take a few moments to reflect on your result. Does it surprise you or confirm what you already know? Now give yourself a few minutes to think about what you’d like to get out of this experience.
If your result shows that you can elevate your listening skills to incorporate empathic listening approaches, you can equip yourself with techniques to remedy that.
If you scored well, this resource will help you to make further improvements.
Let's Act
Having reflected on your score, pick one of the following areas to take action on in the next week or two:
- Consider what others might be thinking and feeling, but not saying. (See questions 1, 2, 3, and 4.)
- Develop strategies to help you understand and remember what people say to you. (See questions 5, 6 and 7.)
- Actively demonstrate to others that you are listening and receptive to their ideas. (See questions 8, 9, 10, and 11.)
Take Your Learning Further
Start with empathy
Develop an understanding of empathy by exploring its three main types – cognitive, emotional and social empathy. This in turn can enhance your ability to actively listen while being sensitive to the emotional needs of others.
Accurately interpret and remember what is said
Reflect back what you’ve heard by paraphrasing what’s been said, ensuring that you've understood the message. Consider how you will remember the information. For example, note-taking helps develop a deeper understanding by capturing the key points in your own words.
Use verbal and non-verbal acknowledgements
Body language is a powerful communication tool. Gestures, facial expressions and other non-verbal signals provide information on feelings, intentions and state of mind.
Reflect on your own body language, what this says about you, and how you can use it to develop mutual understanding between you and those you communicate with.
