6 Ways Listening Can Make You a Better Leader

Do you aspire to have a well-connected, highly functioning team around you? There are some core components of leadership that are necessary to achieve those desired outcomes. Listening is one of the foundational blocks for long-term successful leadership. Let’s take a look at six different benefits that come from listening more effectively and how those can help make you a better leader.

Creates better engagement

Building a highly engaged team should be one of the top priorities of any leader. Getting to that point takes a lot of work that builds from a foundation of trust. Nothing builds trust more quickly than listening. I was reading a book recently on creating winning cultures, which referred to another book that I had read, It’s Your Ship by Captain Michael Abrashoft. In that book, it describes the Captain’s journey from taking one of the worst performing Navy ships to one of the best. He begins the entire process by listening to his crew. He set aside time over nearly six weeks to have one-on-one conversations with each of the sailors to understand what was working well, what was not, and what they would do if they were captain. Not only did he listen to the sailors, he also showed very early on that he was willing to act on what he heard. The engagement that created among the crew members is what paved the way for the ultimate transformation.

You learn new things

Becoming a better leader means having a desire to learn continuously. Listening is one of the easiest ways to learn. We can process so much information from what we hear. However, effective listening is not as easy as it sounds (pun intended). Active listening is a choice. When you choose to hear all that is going on around you, the learning possibilities are endless. New ideas will present themselves in seemingly the strangest places. Learning is so much more than what we think about from our school days. It is the small bits and pieces of information that come from engaging with others with an open mind and hearing what they have to say. As a leader, you become the aggregator of those pieces and not only learn for yourself from the collective group, but then have the opportunities to process and teach back the information to others. There is no better way to learn than to teach.

Better understanding of your team's reality

Listening plays another essential role in being a leader. When you are open to hearing what is going on around you, subtle clues will present themselves as to the reality of the environment. You can listen to frustration, you can hear enthusiasm, you can hear cynicism, and you can hear engagement or the lack thereof. All of that information is around you each day. Listen to the sounds and voices of the environment to get a picture of the culture you are creating.

You can provide better coaching

Ever have someone provide you with some insight or feedback that completely missed the mark? It was almost as if they had no idea what you had been doing and what was important to you. They weren’t listening. Being a coach for your team is a critical aspect of strong leadership. To be the most effective coach possible, you must observe and listen. You need to have a good idea of what is really going on with any team member. If observation is not possible, then an open discussion where you ask questions and actively listen for what they describe as their situation. That will allow for a value-added feedback session to follow where both of you can learn, share ideas, and build plans for the future.

Better information to anticipate what’s ahead

Speaking of the future – all good leaders always have their eyes looking up and forward to what is on the horizon. Listening helps to fill in many blanks. Hearing what is currently happening can provide excellent clues to what may occur in the future. If many of your team members are expressing concern for timelines, resource availability, or other obstacles, you would be wise to heed those warnings and engage the team now to avoid the potential issues down the road. Listening each day may be one of the key ingredients to a proactive strategy.

Model leadership expectations

Building and maintaining an engaged culture means that everyone on the team is actively participating in the activities that create those outcomes. Understanding that listening is one of the most important elements of that foundation means that your behavior will set the example for others. If you don’t model listening as an essential skill for others, they won’t do it. And without everyone listening to each other, the ability to build a cohesive, team-oriented environment will be nearly impossible. Show your team the way.

These six ideas of why listening can make you a better leader only scratch the surface. Active listening is a skill everyone knows is critical, but few can manage it at a high level consistently. It takes practice, patience, and the support of others to help you refine it over time. Ask peers, ask your team, or ask your mentor to provide feedback on how your listening skills rate now and what you can do to improve. Keep your ears open to what they have to say – that can be your first practice session on how listening can make you a more effective leader for the long term.

How will you strengthen your listening skills to help you develop as a leader?

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