Seema Gangrade, a seasoned Spoken English Coach, highlights how active and empathetic listening can transform communication, build trust, and foster stronger relationships. Through practical tips and thoughtful reflections, she teaches readers to master this vital skill in both personal and professional spheres.

In a world full of noise, truly listening has become a rare and powerful skill. It’s more than just hearing wwords — it’s about understanding feelings, building trust, and connecting deeply with others. Great listeners don’t just wait to speak; they create space for voices to be heard and valued. From this article, we learn how, when we master the art of listening, we unlock the heart of effective communication.
The power of listening lies in unlocking the secret of effective communication. What is listening? It is a crucial aspect of communication as it enables understanding, builds trust, and fosters meaningful connections with people. When we communicate, the most important aspect is listening, which helps in understanding the speaker’s perspective, emotions, needs, and will trust and respect. There is no misunderstanding between the speaker and communicator. Great communicators are great listeners. We should always try to listen patiently and understand what the communicator says.
Most of the people listen with intent to reply without understanding the concept. They do not wait for the full answer, as there is a presumption or assumption about the communicator. They prejudge, interrupt many times, and become prejudiced. Prejudice refers to the preconceived opinion and judgment. We often think that our opinion is correct and try to impress upon the communicator. The opinions may be negative sometimes, and so we should try not to be prejudiced during the communication. We should never be biased, either. Bias is a tendency to favour or lean towards a perspective, a person, or a group with opinions. This can be conscious, explicit, or implicit. These two things stand as barriers to effective communication and multitasking.
We also find that people do not focus on what the communicator is saying or their views. They start working on the phone, or engage in their conversation, or engage in other activities. We often confuse listening and hearing. While listening is a passive process of perceiving sound, it is an active process of understanding, analysing, and responding. Stephen Covey says that people do not listen with the intent to understand, but with the intent to reply. Hearing is a basic process of perceiving sound, and listening is an activity involved in paying attention, interrupting, and responding to what is being said. So, we should try to listen and not hear so that we can focus on what we hear.
What good happens when we listen? When we listen consciously, patiently, it builds trust between the communicator and the listening group, shows empathy, and respect. The communicator would like to express his thoughts and opinions, which encourages openness. We also feel valued when somebody is saying something to which we pay attention, empathy, and respect. It reduces our conflicts and misinterpretations often, and it enhances our problem-solving skills to make informed decisions. At the end, we leave with a good and valued decision as we communicate the elements.
For this, we have to pay attention, eliminate distractions, and we have to focus on the speaker. We can use nods and eye contact apart from verbal affirmation. The listener should not say anything but only show interest by making eye contact. By nodding their head, the listener can express the comfort feeling with the communicator. We have to listen to the whole conversation and come to a conclusion on what the speaker says, and before that, we should not assume what the communicator is saying.
There are a few simple ways to improve listening skills. We can pause before responding, listen carefully, and then ask clarifying questions if we have any doubts. We have to reflect and summarize the key points. After the communicator finishes his talk, we can ask. We have to summarise thoroughly so that we can get the key points also, and we need to practise mindfulness to stay present. We should avoid planning the reply by listening. Often, people, when they listen continuously, plan their answers by assuming in advance that the communicator would want to say and prepare their answers. We have to avoid this and improve our listening.
Why listening matters?
Where does listening make the difference? Listening makes a difference in workplaces. It strengthens teamwork and problem-solving skills. It also helps in enhancing relationships and fosters deeper connections and trust. Listening enhances comprehension and retention and helps in solving problems. It also helps in leadership skills by inspiring and motivating others. Our listening will improve others’ inspiration by looking at the patience with which we listen and give our views to motivate others. Listening is a skill that can be mastered with practice. It makes relationships more meaningful. We can listen to podcasts on Spotify to improve our listening skills. In the class, we can ask the students after the class is over, to summarise it either the same day or the next day. If the students have understood what the teachers said, they can do it. Or one student can tell a portion of the lecture by the teacher to another student, which can be passed on to the next student, till it comes back to the first student. This is a listening activity and can be done in pairs. Active listening builds better relationships and understanding.
Connection through listening
In a fast-paced world, we can focus fully on speakers, without restrictions, be patient, and avoid forming responses when a person is speaking. We should never be judgmental, and we should practise mindfulness. We have to show facial expression or body language and not interrupt the communication. In this way, we can enhance our listening in this fast-paced world.
Listening reduces conflict as we understand the other person’s concern, validate their feelings, and find common grounds. It creates an environment of mutual respect and connection. Thus, we can resolve our conflicts. For leadership skills, listening is very important. Good leaders listen to their teams to understand the challenges, get a diverse perspective, and build trust. Listening promotes inclusivity, better decisions, and makes employees satisfied. So any good leader has a quality of listening.
Zoom In on listening
For virtual communication, the good techniques are to minimise multitasking. We should focus on the conversation, and any multitasking in between leads to distraction. Often, people tend to eat something or engage themselves in other topics. They assume that they are listening to the communicator. They also get phone calls to which they attend and try to listen to the communicator. We should minimize multitasking and focus on the conversation, and use verbal affirmation to show engagement and understanding. The communicator would also feel comfortable and valued. At the end, we can summarise what the speaker said. In this way, we can use good techniques in listening during virtual communication.
Empathy builds connection
Empathetic listening is very critical in communication. It helps to understand the emotions and intent behind the world. When we are empathetic and show our trust towards the communicator, it also builds emotions and the intentions behind the use of words, and it fosters a deeper connection between the communicator and listener. It reduces judgment and promotes trust and mutual respect.
For schools, cultivating listening is nothing less than reform. A school culture where teachers truly listen to students, and students practise listening to peers, creates an environment of respect, empathy, and collaboration. If every classroom encouraged active and empathetic listening, not only would academic learning improve, but children would also grow into compassionate, thoughtful citizens. Schools must therefore make listening a core value—woven into teaching practices, assemblies, and everyday interactions—so that education shapes not just sharp minds, but also caring hearts.

Contact:
Seema Gangradew
English Speaking Coach
M:9753491686
E:gangrade9@gmail.com