Everyday in our professional and personal lives, we communicate with people. Unless you are a strict cyber business owner using only a computer keyboard to communicate, your spoken interactions influence your success in all aspects of life. The way we talk and what words we say are certainly important, however our ability to hear and listen is just as important if not more so in maintaining trust and affinity with our clients, contacts and family.
   Miscommunication does cost us in many ways, socially and financially. It undermines trust, makes our clients wary of dealing with us and certainly precludes them from referring their friends and family to us for our services.
   Consider the following example: Susan is selling her house and wants to have her mother’s best friend’s husband, Joe take care of the sale. Susan calls Joe to set up an appointment to have him come over to the house to help her prepare for listing. Joe’s real estate office is busy, noisy and Joe’s hearing ability is diminished slightly. Susan asks him to come over at 7 a.m. so she can make it to her aerobics class on time. He writes down Susan, 11 a.m. tomorrow and signs off.
   Tomorrow comes and no Joe at 7 a.m.! Susan leaves for class rather upset that Joe didn’t show up and can’t be reached. Joe shows up at 11 a.m. and finds a nasty note on the door that lets him know Susan will be looking elsewhere for real estate services.
Many people who walk into my office with miscommunication problems will say that if everyone in their life would stop mumbling, they would be just fine. It is illogical to assume that everyone in their working and private life started mumbling at the same time! Usually they are experiencing diminished hearing ability.
   Diminished hearing can be caused by any number of conditions, wax in the ears or an ear infection but the most common cause of hearing problems is sensory hearing loss. Sensory hearing loss is a loss of normal sensitivity to soft sounds, most commonly in the high pitch region.
   This kind of loss most often affects one’s ability to detect the soft, high-pitched sounds of speech (consonants). In the English language, consonant sounds represent ninety-five percent of the meaning of speech. Some consonant sounds are so soft (f,t,th,etc.) that even just a slight drop in hearing sensitivity can cause confusion, especially when trying to listen to conversation in a noisy area.
   There are several ways to deal with miscommunication. One suggestion is to ask people to repeat. Helping the speaker by repeating back what you did hear helps, but several renditions of “what” or “pardon me” will erode the speaker’s confidence in you very quickly as was stated previously. Another suggestion is to seek hearing help.
   The hearing instruments of today are very different than those of just ten years ago. Digital devices can automatically change their output to our ears depending on the sound environment we are in. If we are straining to hear a soft voice over the phone, the instrument will amplify to its maximum capability to pick up that soft signal. If we then walk into a crowded room and are trying to carry on a conversation with a potential client, the instrument will pick up the softer signal closer to us while reducing (not eliminating) the background noise around us.
   The use of multiple microphones with digital technology has provided us with the best help for better understanding speech in noise to date. There are even hearing instruments available now that are disposable, which helps with reducing problems due to instrument breakdown (if it breaks down, just toss it!) and greatly reduces the up front costs of buying hearing instruments.