Barriers to Effective Listening

This activity is important because the ability to listen effectively is a key communication skill in the working world. Multiple barriers exist to effective listening, and these can reduce your listening effectiveness if you$$re not aware of them.

The goal of this activity is to demonstrate your awareness of the primary barriers to effective listening in a workplace scenario.

Read the case and answer the questions that follow.

Monica, Brandy, Theo, and Blake are among the sales reps taking part in this year$$s mandatory workshop on workplace diversity. As veterans of the sales department, all four have participated in this workshop many times before, so when Charlene takes the stage to begin her presentation about diversity, they already know what she plans to say. It doesn$$t help matters that the workshop has been scheduled for a Friday afternoon, when most sales reps are usually concluding their business for the week and looking forward to the weekend. It also doesn$$t help that most sales reps see the workshop as somewhat pointless because the sales force is already the most diverse unit in the company.

Nonetheless, the workshop is mandatory and participants are required to take and pass a post$-$workshop quiz. Because the questions on the quiz change from year to year, the sales reps have to pay attention if they are to pass. For a variety of reasons, however, most find it difficult to listen closely to what Charlene has to say.

Monica finds it hard to pay attention because she is tired at the end of a long week and simply wants to go home. Her fatigue therefore keeps her from listening effectively. This is an example of which barrier to effective listening?