Poor listening skills were shown to contribute significantly to failure in a person’s first year of college (Zabava & Wolvin, 1993).  Students with high scores for listening abilities have greater academic achievement. Interpersonal communication skills including listening are also highly sought after by potential employers, consistently ranking in the top ten in national surveys (National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2010).

In professional settings, potential communication challenges arise from deficient listening skills, a lack of conciseness, and an inability to provide constructive feedback. Even though listening education is lacking in our society, research has shown that introductory communication courses provide important skills necessary for functioning in entry-level jobs. This includes listening, writing, motivating/persuading, interpersonal skills, informational interviewing, and small-group problem solving ( DiSalvo, 1980). Training and improvements in listening will continue to pay off, as employers desire employees with good communication skills. Furthermore, employees with good listening skills are more likely to get promoted.

Listening also has implications for our personal lives. We shouldn’t underestimate the power of listening to make someone else feel better and to open our perceptual field to new sources of information. Listening can help us expand our self and social awareness by learning from other people’s experiences and by helping us take on different perspectives. Emotional support in the form of listening and validation during times of conflict can help relational partners manage common stressors of relationships that may otherwise lead a partnership to deteriorate (Milardo & Helms-Erikson, 2000). The following list reviews some of the main functions of listening that are relevant in multiple contexts.

The Main Purposes of Listening include (Hargie, 2011)

• To focus on messages sent by other people
• Awareness to ambient sounds in our environment
• Improve our understanding of other people’s communication
• Critically evaluate other people’s messages
• Monitor nonverbal signals
• Indicate that we are interested and paying attention
• Empathize with others
• Engage in negotiation, dialogue, or other exchanges that result in shared understanding of or agreement on an issue