How to practice active listening in the workplace

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Why active listening matters

Active listening is a professional skill that involves acknowledging and processing the information someone has communicated to you. By practicing active listening at work, you can affirm that you’ve understood someone’s thoughts so you can move forward with the task at hand.

This skill involves using patience and empathy as you:

• Acknowledge the person speaking and focus on their message.
• Avoid quick judgments or assumptions about the person and their message.
• Restate their point to make sure you understood them.
• Pay attention to the person’s tone and body language.
• Ask for further clarification if necessary.
• Redirect the conversation back to the matter at hand if it gets off topic.

People who thoroughly consider their coworkers’ thoughts through active listening show that they value others’ opinions, expertise, and feelings. While it’s an essential skill for managers and leaders, developing active listening skills can benefit people at all career levels.

The benefits of active listening

When you practice active listening in the workplace, you can promote respect, trust, and exploration in your workplace. You can also:

• Build rapport with teammates.
• Reduce misunderstandings.
• Encourage teamwork.
• Save time and resources.
• Improve decision-making.

Additionally, active listening can help employees build lateral relationships. For example, an employee who actively listens to their colleague in a brainstorming session allows that colleague to feel safe and freely express their ideas, reducing communication-based conflicts.

Managers should also practice active listening with all of their colleagues, no matter their role in the organization. For example, a manager can help two employees resolve a conflict by actively listening to the root causes of the problem, allowing everyone to see through their emotions and assess the facts of the situation.

Practicing active listening at work

Implementing active listening at work takes time and intention. Try these tips to help you build active listening skills in your workplace:

Tip 1: Listen to learn, not to respond.

When speaking with someone, you may balance your focus between the person’s words and your response. But to actively listen, you should put aside your reaction to focus on parsing their meaning and reading their body language.

To do this, you should:

• Avoid immediately judging their idea.
• Sit quietly and listen.
• Consider their idea, feelings, and body language.

Tip 2: Show interest through body language and cues.

When someone is speaking, they want to know that you hear and understand them, and that you’re interested in their thoughts and feelings. You can express interest through body language and verbal cues, such as:

• Leaning forward.
• Nodding.
• Avoiding interruptions.
• Using affirmative verbal cues like “Mhm,” “Right,” or “Yes.”
• Maintaining eye contact.

Tip 3: Summarize their thoughts.

Once the speaker has completed a thought, repeat what they said to clarify any miscommunication. Taking a moment to summarize their thoughts allows you to confirm that you heard and thoroughly understood them.

Take the following workplace scenario, in which an employee disagrees with a deadline, for example:

• Employee: I just don’t see how we can finish this report by Friday. It feels like the expectations are unfair, and I’m worried we’re being set up to fail.
• Manager: So, what I’m hearing is that you feel the Friday deadline doesn’t give you and the team enough time to do quality work, and you’re concerned about the pressure it creates. Is that right?
• Employee: Yes, exactly. We want to deliver, but it feels rushed.

Tip 4: Ask open-ended questions.

You can support clear communication by asking open-ended, clarifying questions. These questions give your coworkers room to express themselves and can help you unify your understanding.

Open-ended questions often start with words like “what,” “how,” and “why.” When active listening, avoid yes-or-no questions, which can shut down dialogue and limit insights.

For example, revisiting the scenario from Tip 3:

• Instead of asking:
• “Do you need more time?”
• “Can you put other tasks aside to make this a priority this week?”
• Consider asking:
• “How can I support you to make this deadline work?”
• “What would be a better deadline for you?”

By framing questions this way, you clarify the issue while encouraging collaboration, problem-solving, and mutual respect.

Tip 5: Don’t rush to respond.

You don’t have to respond immediately. Sometimes, the best way to exercise active listening is to confirm that you’ve understood the speaker and then take time to consider their perspective.

Taking a break is especially important during conflict, when emotions are running high. Instead of trying to conclude the conversation at the soonest point, consider responding with:

• “Thank you for sharing. I’m going to take a day to consider this. Let’s reconvene tomorrow to find a solution.”
• “I’m glad to know how you feel. I’ll consider that, and we can discuss again later.”