Listening is important—everyone agrees. Would there be any point talking if no one listened? And for most people, it's a skill with potential for improvement. Increasingly, it's been seen as an essential professional skill. Sandra Spartaro and Janel Bloch's excellent article on listening references a job search website where “active listening” appears as a qualification or required skill in 17,000 postings for business positions in management, accounting, and sales. Shortly after that, they cite a reference that learning goals related to listening were listed by less than 15 percent of AACSB-accredited business schools compared with 76 percent of the schools that had goals related to presenting.
