When I’m running leadership courses, one of the questions I occasionally get asked is, “If I could just learn one skill to be a more effective leader, what would it be?”. I always provide the same response – learn to listen. Learning to listen is a skill…the benefits are well known.
- It’s easier to make connections with people.
- The capacity to empathise is an important skill for leadership under the emotional intelligence banner.
- Listening helps build trust so you have a better understanding of what’s going on in the team.
- There are personal benefits around self-esteem and an increase in confidence.
So, if we know all this, why don’t people do anything with it?
I occasionally play this high-spirited listening game we run in leadership training, and we do a debrief at the end of it where I ask people if they think listening is an important skill and inevitably the entire group put up their hand. I then ask another question – who thinks they are a good listener? I usually get some hesitancy with people having to think and they’re not sure – some say occasionally, sometimes, or selective. Just think about that what that means to your effectiveness as a leader. How good a listener for you?
If you like to know a little bit more about this topic, feel free to book a free consult: https://moyleen.com/calendar/.
