This can be a difficult balance to attain though. It proceeds from the view that persuasive communication is only partially defined by the delivery of a message. An equally significant part of this, at least when contextualized by interpersonal forms of communication, is the effectiveness with which one appears to have received communicated ideas and information from those who will receive the message in question. Indeed, the ability to establish trust through simultaneous communication and message reception is one of the most effective measurements of the success with which teams are built. Thus, trust earns a central role in our discussion regarding this process of actively listening. For participants on either the transmitting or receiving side, the establishment of trust through open, honest and direct communication will contribute to a positive pattern of active listening. For me personally, this is the most important part of working on my skills as an active listener.
A crucial technique is establishing trust by facilitating a relationship with a communicational partner -- whether it be a friend, an instructor or an acquaintance in future professional dealings -- where I am comfortable with the individual's entitlement to be in communication of the specific information offered. This is to note that active listening rests with my capacity to demonstrate that I appreciate trustworthy characteristics in those with whom I may engage communicatively and to reflect the same. Where these characteristics may be observed, my discursive partner is likely to emerge from initiation of engagement -- in the short-term of a one-time interaction or in the long-term of sustained partnership or friendship -- with a sense that I am qualified to offer valuable insight, information, data, concept, input or even validation. The belief of the presence of such virtues will promote an assumed...
We are therefore inclined to consider such matters as focus, attentiveness, retention and personal engagement in devising techniques for active listening under all circumstances so as to present the impression of being receptive when working to persuade. An interesting technique that we are offered with regard to the formulation of needed active listening skills concerns an effort to ensure that the correct information has been ascertained from a perceived message. This is to note that when listening, one means not just to preventing misunderstanding, but to illustrating to the speaker and to one's self that distractions have not prevented a conveyance of the intended information, is to actually repeat the intended message. Paraphrasing a response to a piece of information by attempting to deduce and simultaneously illustrate that the correct message has been obtained will illustrate to the communicator that you are interested in receiving and integrating this information.
This applies even if one's intent upon receiving and reiterating a message is to then refute it. Where one is in need of convincing, it will be important for this individual to feel that his or her ideas have at least been given there due consideration. It is thus that we resolve one of the strongest imperatives for persuasive communication to be the demonstration of active listening. Where this combines with an impression management sustaining the image of one as a confident authority, we can see that persuasion requires skill in both the receipt and transmission of interpersonal messages.
