Last week, we talked about the importance of communicating often with your employees. When you’re not communicating enough, people make up stories about what must be happening behind the scenes, they aren’t able to focus on their work, and they can become resentful.
Today we’re continuing to talk about your communication, but this time we’re focusing on listening fully.
In our work, we’ve seen time and again that some of the greatest leaders are those that really listen to their employees. They approach time with their teams as an opportunity to understand their employees’ successes, challenges, and learnings.
Active listening can build trust and respect with your team, help to ensure you understand their needs, as well as fostering a work environment where people believe that they matter.
In this fast-paced world, we understand that it’s not always easy to listen fully. It requires slowing down, decreasing your reactivity, and being curious.
Many of us feel that we need to have all of the answers—especially when we’re leading others. It can seem necessary to talk, and talk a lot, to convey our expertise to others.
While demonstrating competence does matter, listening fully can demonstrate that you’re open and curious to understand their perspective, which can create trust and better communication.
So how do you grow in your ability to listen deeply?
Slow down.
- It’s important to slow yourself down, put away all distractions and be open to the information you’re hearing.
- When the other person starts talking, listen to understand their perspective vs interrupting or immediately formulating your response.
Decrease your reactivity.
- Be on the lookout for your own reactions to what you’re hearing. Maybe you fear that you’ll hear something you don’t want to hear or something that challenges your sense of competence.
- When you feel yourself getting reactive, remember our Pause framework. Pause and ask yourself, “Is what I’m about to say or do in alignment with my goals?”
Be curious.
- When you’re curious about others’ experiences and thoughts, they feel valued and it increases the sense of connection and camaraderie and you’ll learn things about people, their lives, the world, and even content that you would never have learned otherwise.
- After the other person is done, consider reflecting back what you’ve heard as well as asking some additional open-ended questions.
When you listen fully, you’ll be better positioned to understand your teams. You’ll be fostering clearer communication and stronger collaboration, and creating a culture of belonging.
This week, consider using one or more of these techniques to listen more fully and openly to your team.
Let us know how it goes.
If you’d like support
listening fully,
contact us today.
