Leading and Listening

I heard about a study that said we hear half of what is being said, listen to half of what we hear, understand half of it, believe half of that, and remember only half of that. That says one thing to me: we need to work harder at listening. As leaders, we should make it our goal to be a more effective listener. In order to lead people, one must first understand them. You can’t possibly connect with someone if you don’t try to listen to and understand him or her. If you want to be more effective connecting with people, make it your goal to understand them. It is no coincidence that we have one mouth and two ears. That means we should listen twice as much as we talk. When we fail to listen, we shut off much of our learning potential. Good listeners pay attention to the small details. They also pay attention to what is not said. To be an effective leader, you need to let others tell you what you need to near, not necessarily what you want to hear. The truth is the higher people go in leadership, the more authority they have and the less they are forced to listen to others. However their need to listen becomes greater. “If they have not formed the habit of listening, they are not going to get the facts they need. When a leader stays in the dark, whatever problems the organization is having will only get worse”. John Maxwell is right.

We as leaders should force ourselves to listen more than we talk and try our best to understand those we are fortunate enough to lead. Those people have placed a trust in us that should not be taken for granted. They want us to listen to their goals and help them to achieve those goals. We would be doing them and ourselves a tremendous disservice if we did not listen. After all, we are judged by what others think and say of us, not what we think of ourselves. So why not do yourself a favor and help yourself by helping others.