Are You Listening?

In my mind, without a doubt, effective communication is key to engaging leadership.

There’s a great quote by Stephen Covey, the author of the excellent book ‘The 7 habits of highly effective people who said:

‘The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand – we listen to reply’

Do you remember the last time you were speaking to someone and you really felt that they were not listening to you? How did that make you feel?

As leaders, we must learn the art of active listening. When someone is talking, we should push all other thoughts aside and openly listen to the individual - take in what they are saying without forming an opinion and, in many cases, more importantly, pick up on what’s not being said & the non-verbal cues.

There are lots of techniques out there to help leaders become better active listeners, however, in its basic form, it is about demonstrating to the recipient that you are interested and are listening to them in order to understand, not to respond. Be aware of your own body language and what that is telling the recipient. Summarise and repeat key points that you hear back. Do not be afraid to say that you do not have an immediate response/answer and that you will have to get back to the individual – in fact, to me this helps to demonstrate that you have been listening.

If you are finding it difficult to remember the key principles of active listening, then just remember this ……

In short speak less – listen more!