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Hearing and listening are two different things. The first is the physical ability while the second is a skill. You don't need to do anything to hear, you can't shut your ears and will always hear whatever is happening around you. A lot of people confuse listening with hearing.

As I mentioned above, listening is the skill and that's why you will need to make some effort in order to listen to what you are being told. For hearing, no effort is required. We often discuss the barriers towards effective communication but most of the time, we ignore the important part of effective communication and that's listening. In short, listening is understanding the meaning of words and the purpose, not just nodding your head.

For effective communication, the importance of listening can't be ignored. Failure in listening properly will result in the failure in given task. In other words, the way you listen to the instructions decides whether you'd be able to properly finish the task or fail. Let's discuss some of the reasons in detail why listening is important.

# 1 - To be more efficient at work

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When the boss is giving you instructions, it is important for you to listen carefully and understand what your manager is saying to you. Careful listening will help you understand the instructions well and will encourage you to ask questions about things that are still unclear. 

In order to be efficient at work, you need to have complete information of what you're supposed to do and the only way to get complete information is by properly listening to the instructions. It's commonly seen that some employees only hear what they are being told by managers and at the end, they misunderstand the instructions and do the opposite of what they were told by their manager.

# 2 - To enhance relationships

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Listening is not only important in the workplace but also in the family. When your wife is talking to you, leave every other thing and free yourself to carefully listen what she is saying by looking into her eyes. Eye contact is more effective in enhancing the relationships.

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Your spouse starts realizing that she is important to you because you left all other things while she was talking to you. It will lead to a good relationship and increase the love between a couple. The benefits aren't limited to romantic relationships; careful listening helps in making the loyal friends.

# 3 - To save your time

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"Are you even listening?", says your employer in an angry mood and you end up saying "Oh yes, I'm sorry" and this unnecessary conversation not only wastes your time but the time of the employer too. If you're in business, you'd probably know that time is money. Why is your employer repeating things to you five times? That's because he knows that your listening skills need a lot of work!

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With proper listening, you can understand almost everything in the first attempt which would save you time. It also reduces the chances of getting fired. No employer likes to have such an employee who is not focused at work and lacks important skills such as listening.

As you know, skills can be learned. If you don't have good listening skills, then keep practicing. Watch even more videos and try to listen carefully and understand what is being said in the first attempt instead of rewinding the video.  With practice comes perfection.