Every good conversation starts with good listening.

My colleague Jill, who is an adjunct professor at the University of Nevada Reno in Communication Studies, gave me a wonderful “pearl” after coffee one day. She forwarded a copy of the HURIER Listening Profile to me so I could do a self-assessment of my listening skills.

Jill said it might be fun if I guessed how I will do before completing the form … which I did.

So, I thought that HURIER was someone’s name, but it actually stands for the 6 components of listening (who knew there were that many!):

• Hearing
• Understanding
• Remembering
• Interpreting
• Evaluation
• Responding

The assessment asks questions that focus on each of these component, but you don’t really know that until you figure out your score.

What was most interesting to me is that I perceive myself to be the most skilled in “interpretation” or making sense of the message that’s being delivered. This includes body language, tone of voice, facial expressions and emotions.  That made a lot of sense to me.  I do think that is a strength of mine.

On the other hand, I scored lowest in ‘responding,’ which is the providing feedback to the speaker … something I can definitely work on.

Click here is you would like to download the HURIER Listening Profile and assess your listening skills. It might provide some insights for you too.

Jeanette

P.S.  Did you happen to notice that the picture I chose for this post has both characters talking into the can?? Neither is listening!!