Hearing and listening are not the same.

Of course, they are related.  If your hearing isn’t perfect (find me an adult with perfect hearing) then the worse it is, the harder the task of listening.

When hearing and listening conditions are good – that is, suppose your hearing is in very good condition, and there’s no interfering background noise or too much reverberation, then you are still only likely to remember a fraction of the actual content of what you hear. Some experts say that the content of what you hear accounts for only seven percent of what you retain. Seven percent!  Think what that means for you at the doctors; in the board room; interviewing someone for a job; or when you’re in the classroom.

People do remember much more about tone. Try shouting the words of Rock a bye baby, angrily. If we focused on the content, would we ever sing this gentle lullaby?

Whether you are a presenter, or a listener, you need to understand that intonation is easy to hear and easy to retain.  Content is not.  Add to this that as we age our auditory memory deteriorates, making it harder still to focus on the message.  Communication is a cycle that involves speaking, or singing, hearing and listening.

For a good communication environment, we need to pay attention to all of it – not just part of it. Good hearing aids make hearing easier, but they don’t replace active listening.

Do you want to be known as a good listener? Get your hearing fixed, listen with your ears, your eyes and your body, and pay attention to what you say, and how you say it.

If you think your hearing is keeping you from listening as well as you once did, take the Speech Perception test for an accurate report on your speech recognition ability.