There are many lessons I’m learning as I grow in leadership. Some of the most profound ones are the simple ones that I just can’t put behind me. You never stop learning something new about these areas. Learning to listen is one of those fundamentals.
To grow as a leader, you have to learn to listen better.
I was at the coast last night and there was hardly anyone around. I listened to the surf, the occasional bird, and I remembered how little I listened in the past few days.
As a leader who teaches other leaders how to get better, the irony is that I’m often giving advice on things I haven’t completely mastered myself. One of those is learning to listen.
Instead of going on at length let me keep this brief.
To grow as a leader, you have to learn to listen better. That’s the lesson and it’s simple. But it’s not easy to practice.
The temptation to tell people things rather than listen is huge. As leaders we think people expect us to have something to say. The problem is that most of what we say isn’t being heard.
People tune us out. They selectively listen. They do this because it’s what they see us doing. It’s also a bad habit we develop fairly early in life. Even if we tell people they need to listen better, they are going to watch what we do rather than listen to what we say.
If you really listen to people, they know it. They feel it. It’s more likely to make an impression on them. If you listen enough, people will even start following your example. They will pause before firing off. They will stop to clarify what they heard. The quality of all the listening around us will go up.
It sounds so simple. Like a lot of leadership, it’s a profound skill that’s underrated. I’ve said it. Now it’s time to be quiet and listen.
