Chapter 6 Listening 157c People-oriented listeners have relationships in mind. They tend to be most
concerned with other people’s feelings, are good at assessing others’ moods,
and can listen without judging.c Action-oriented listeners focus on tasks; they organize the information they
hear into concise and relevant themes. They keep the discourse on track, so
they’re valuable in meetings and as members of teams and organizations.
c Content-oriented listeners carefully evaluate what they hear. They attend
to information from credible sources and critically examine the information
from a variety of angles. They are particularly effective when information is
complex, detailed, and challenging.c Time-oriented listeners are concerned with efficiency; they prefer time lim-
itations on the listening interaction. They favor clear, pertinent information
and have little patience for speakers who talk too much or wander off topic.
Although some people show a clear preference for one style over another,
about 40 percent of people score high on two or more listening styles (Barker &
Watson, 2000). Thus, the best listeners adapt their listening styles to different
situations (Bodie & Villaume, 2003). For example, you may be more content-
oriented while listening to a political debate so you can analyze the information
and make a judgment, more people-oriented when consoling a friend because
you care about maintaining the relationship, more action-oriented during a
meeting on a group project, or time-oriented when you’re working under a tight
deadline.
The Value of Listening Well
As a young man, Dr. Ernesto Sirolli headed to Zambia to work with an Italian
NGO (nongovernmental organization) focused on building local agriculture. He
had good intentions and dreams of helping the Zambian people, but every project
his organization sponsored failed miserably. In a 2012 TED talk, Dr. Sirolli
recounts his attempts to teach the Zambian locals to grow Italian tomatoes and
zucchini (which they had no interest in doing!). Just when the tomatoes were
ripening to perfection, hundreds of hippos emerged from the river and ate abso-
lutely everything. The Italians were shocked; the Zambians smiled knowingly
and explained that this is why they don’t have agriculture. Sirolli learned a pow-
erful lesson: “Why don’t we, for once, instead of arriving in the community to
tell people what to do, why don’t [we], for once, listen to them?” (TED, 2012).
From this and similar experiences the Sirolli Institute developed the Enterprise
Facilitation model, which focuses on responsive, person-centered approaches to
local economic development through listening to local people’s needs, passions,
dreams, abilities, realities, and prospects. As a result, more than two hundred
fifty communities around the world have successfully implemented locally
focused programs for economic development.
As Ernesto Sirolli learned, it pays to listen well. In every aspect of life—from
winning at Quizzo to arguing for a pay raise to helping a rural merchant estab-
lish a successful trade—listening well is essential to achieve success. Put simply,
Consider the examples of
listening styles we’ve given
here. Do you favor a particu-
lar listening style? Are you
able to adopt different styles
in different situations?AND YOU?