Key leadership principles, 5 Levels of listening, 4 developmental Essay

Key leadership principles, 5 Levels of listening, 4 developmental stages of empathic listening - Essay Example Going through the section on habit five, Covey asserts that even though individuals are always taken through other aspects of communication such as reading, writing and speaking, listening is similarly of great significance. According to Covey, any communication process involves five levels of listening. The first level is ignoring, which is characterized by not really paying attention to the perceptions of the other party, and that the practice of pretending is the second level of listening. Covey emphasizes that the aspect of hearing only a few positions, which is known as selective listening is the third level of listening and that attentive listening that is characterized by taking note of one’s energy on the words being said is the fourth level. The author strongly believes that in as much as people are able to make sense of the perceptions of others when they go through the four levels of listening highlighted above, there is need to practice emphatic listening, which is essentially skill based and truncated from both character and the relationship that exists between the parties at hand. Emphatic listening is of great significance in communication because it focuses on listening with intent to understand rather than concentrating on the how to reply, control and manipulate the conversation (Covey 248). Similarly, Covey holds the opinion that emphatic listening is far-reaching in communication, as it enables the parties involved to look inside their frames of reference and see through the worlds of each other, thereby understanding how each party feels instead of exhibiting sympathy. The author recommends that emphatic listening should make use of the ears, eyes and the heart and though it has often been put forward that s uch an approach makes individuals more susceptible to manipulation, it is important, as it provides accurate data to work with. To demonstrate how productive emphatic listening is during