Katherine Porter

Business Communications II

November 7, 2014

Who is Responsible for Listening?

Both the sender and the receiver are responsible for listening. The communication

process requires both the receiver’s and the sender’s effort. Sender-receiver reciprocity is “when

both communicators simultaneously send and receive messages and constantly adapt to each

other’s feedback” (Downing, et. al., 2014, p. 261).

I am sitting in the weekly meeting regarding technical information, I simply hate these

meetings, but I personally know that they contain important information. The first thing that I

must do to help concentrate on the meeting at hand is to maintain a good eye contact with the

person leading the meeting. Then, I should have an open posture and lean forward toward the

speaker; this shows that I myself am paying attention and ready to listen. Lastly, to encourage the

presenter to keep going with the meeting I should smile and nod so he/she knows that I am

paying attention and making connections with what they are saying (Downing, et. al., 2014).

On the other hand, I myself am leading my first meeting at my brand new job, but no one

seems to be listening. What can I do to get the room to pay attention to what you are saying? One

skill that I can apply to encourage others to listen is to know what message I want to get across

and to organize what I’m going to say. Next I can use a visual, such as a poster board or a power

point. Another thing is to use my space to my advantage; don’t just stand in one place and talk.

Walk around and get some movement to my presentation (Downing, et. al., 2014).

Both the sender and receiver are responsible for listening. There are things that you can

do to help you listen and to speak and people listen to you. The listening skills included good eye

contact, open posture, leaning forward, smiling, and nodding. The four speaking skills I used:

knowing the message, organizing, using a visual, and using your space to your advantage. I am

looking forward to applying these techniques in my future workplace.