Listening is a Proactive Skill
by Lois MelbourneA local Dallas radio station* had a great line today: “The more we listen to you, the more you will listen to us.” I love that! If we are good leaders, it pertains so much to our employees. The line fits the advice of “listen twice as much as you speak,” but has more power to it. If we talk to our employees and truly listen to their ideas, they are more likely to engage when we discuss our own ideas or information. I’ve come up with six key times that are most critical to listen to your employees.
- Listen carefully during job interviews. Listening here can help you avoid hundreds of issues in the future. A big key to this listening is first asking the right questions.
- Listen when there is a lot of change going on. Your employees need to be heard, and they often have incredible ideas you need.
- Listen when they are telling you things from their heart or their gut. As a leader you can learn more here than you may expect.
- Listen when they are disagreeing with you or with the standard corporate line. This can be difficult, yet essential to finding better ways of doing things.
- Listen when they are talking about your customers. Information is key and information about your customers is frankly worth gold.
- Listen any time they are communicating to you. Be glad they want to communicate.
Listening gives you information and builds trust between you and the communicator. If you need help improving your listening skills as well as mindfully listening and remembering what you’ve heard, I highly recommend the book, The Zen of Listening: Mindful Communications in this Age of Distractions by Rebecca Shafir. It is a very worthwhile read.
* Dallas, The Eagle 97.1
Cheers,
Lois
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