Distractions as Roadblocks to Listening

Assess your listening skills

Good listeners are made, not born. Your skills will improve with practice and, with effort, you can become an exceptional listener. To assess your listening skills, ask yourself these five questions:

Emotions as Barriers to Listening

Negative and positive emotions

You're wired to listen selectively for the information you expect or want. As a result, your emotions affect how and what you hear. This applies to negative emotions – for example, when you're down, you hear the blues, and when you feel threatened, you're more likely to hear attacks. But it also applies to positive emotions, like happiness and enthusiasm.

Speech as an Obstacle to Listening

As a good listener, you should listen at least twice as much as you talk. However, what you have to say is also important. It can help you to listen well, or it can act as a roadblock to better listening.

Three particular types of speech act as roadblocks to effective listening:

Qualities of a successful manager

Becoming a successful manager is not an easy task. It is not only a matter of making the right decisions for your company, but you need to be a good leader. This means that you need to know how to encounter and handle various problems.

Knowledge is necessary but more important is a good vision on the future of your company and the ability to create a good working team. The most important qualities that a successful manager needs are:

*Planning

What Makes a "Good" Manager?

When your career takes a turn towards a management track, you may begin to wonder what, exactly, makes a "good" manager.

The answer to this question is complex. It's not just one thing or one factor that will make you an effective manager. Rather, it is a combination of traits and behaviors. Some people are born with the innate talent of leadership, but anyone can learn how to succeed in a management career.

Demands and Constraints of a Manager's Role

It's a myth that managers have more freedom to achieve results as they wish. In fact, organizational interdependencies limit the freedom managers have to make decisions and take action independently.

Instead, managers must work to achieve results within the context of their organization and the broader business environment. The implications of this interdependence are generally understood as demands and constraints on what a manager is free to do.

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