In Ronald Adler and Neil Towne's text "Looking Out, Looking In", the authors list several ways that we listen to help. They include:
1. Advising: offering a solution ("I think you should do this...")
2. Judging: evaluating the sender's message ("Your boss is a jerk, anyway.").
3. Analyzing: interpreting the message ("From what you've told me, I think she's doing that because...")
4. Questioning: asking questions to further understand the sender's message ("How did he react to that?")
5. Supporting: support the sender by offering agreement, praise, offers to help, reassurance, or diversion. ("Let me know if you want to talk more...I'm here for you.")
6. Prompting: using silences and brief statements of encouragement to encourage the speaker to continue talking. ("Uh huh.")
7. Paraphrasing: Reiterating the speaker's thoughts and putting them into question form for clarity. ("So what I hear you saying is...").
These different examples are more focused to personal relationships. How could you adapt them to be useful in an organization? If you have a current manager, does he or she use any of these techniques in a useful way?
Reference
Adler, R. and Towne, N. (1996). Looking out, looking in. Ninth Edition. Fort Worth, TX:Harcourt Brace.
Some of these techniques we use currently. The instructor wants us to find three outside sources and conduct a sort of interview asking this question. I have two and am looking for a third on this. It just needs a brief statement on each element.