![\"Dr.](\"http:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/comarts\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2015\/02\/profile-image.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDoes this scenario sound familiar?<\/p>\n
\u00a0Sweetheart: \u201cHey Honey, what do you want to do for Valentine\u2019s Day?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Honey: \u201cI don\u2019t care, Sweetheart. Whatever you want to do is fine with me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Sweetheart: \u201cDo you not want to do something for Valentine\u2019s Day?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Honey: \u201cThat\u2019s not what I said! Weren\u2019t you listening to me? I said whatever you want to do is okay.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>Is this Valentine\u2019s Day date (and perhaps this couple) doomed to disaster? What\u2019s going on here? Was Sweetheart listening to Honey? Was Honey listening to Sweetheart? Why does it matter? Perhaps the issue is the listening style each has.<\/p>\n The Listening Style Profile (LSP) \u2013 an assessment developed by well-known listening scholars and long-time International Listening Association members Kittie Watson, Larry Barker and James Weaver \u2013 identifies four listening styles: Content, Action, People, and Time.<\/p>\n \u00a0Content-oriented listeners<\/strong> \u201creflect a style for receiving complex and challenging information.\u201d<\/p>\n When communicating with a content-oriented listener:<\/strong><\/p>\n Sweetheart could have given Honey a specific idea rather than an open-ended question. <\/em><\/p>\n Honey could have asked Sweetheart for a specific idea about what to do. <\/em><\/p>\n Action-oriented listeners<\/strong> \u201cappear to be particularly impatient with a and easily frustrated when listening to a disorganized presentation.\u201d<\/p>\n When communicating with an action-oriented listener: <\/strong><\/p>\n Sweetheart could have outlined a specific plan and let Honey respond to it. <\/em><\/p>\n Honey could have suggested they each come up with a plan and discuss them later. <\/em><\/p>\n People-oriented listeners<\/strong> \u201care viewed as trying to find areas of common interest with others and responsive to the emotions of others.\u201d<\/p>\n When communicating with a people-oriented listener:<\/strong><\/p>\n Sweetheart could have asked about Honey\u2019s feelings about Valentine\u2019s Day and made sure Honey actually wanted to celebrate Valentine\u2019s Day before asking such a loaded opening question. <\/em><\/p>\n Honey could have given more explanation for such an apathetic response. <\/em><\/p>\n Time-orientated listeners<\/strong> \u201cdemonstrate a style of for brief or hurried interactions with others.\u201d<\/p>\n When communicating with a time-oriented listener:<\/strong><\/p>\n Sweetheart could have asked if Honey had time to talk before starting the discussion.<\/em><\/p>\n Honey could have asked to talk about Valentine\u2019s Day later. <\/em><\/p>\n Taking each person\u2019s listening style into consideration can help improve communication in a relationship. The scenario above clearly shows Sweetheart assuming to know what Honey was thinking and feeling instead of asking, and Honey accusing Sweetheart of not listening instead of taking some responsibility for the message Sweetheart received. If that\u2019s the case, then the communication in this relationship (and perhaps the relationship itself) was a disaster long before Valentine\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Dr. Molly Stoltz Does this scenario sound familiar? \u00a0Sweetheart: \u201cHey Honey, what do you want to do for Valentine\u2019s Day?\u201d \u00a0Honey: \u201cI don\u2019t care, Sweetheart. Whatever you want to do is fine with me.\u201d \u00a0Sweetheart: \u201cDo you not want to do something for Valentine\u2019s Day?\u201d \u00a0Honey: \u201cThat\u2019s not what I said! Weren\u2019t you listening…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,20,2,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-listening","category-relationships","category-speech-communication","category-valentines-day"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/comarts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/comarts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/comarts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/comarts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/comarts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/comarts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/comarts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions\/196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/comarts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/comarts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/comarts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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