What are the guidelines for effective listening skills?

Listening is half of oral communication. The following are some guidelines for you to be an effective listener:

• Clear your mind first so that you are prepared to give attention to listening
• Avoid having pre-judgments about the speaker or what he/she might say.
• Be open-minded and appreciate the speaker’s point of view.
• Establish eye contact with the speaker.
• Watch for signals, such as, gestures, postures etc.
• Extract the main points the speaker’s speech.
• Give feedback verbally or non-verbally.
• Make notes by recording important points of the conversation so that they can help you remember thing later on.