Are Leaders Listening?

Often, instead of seeking to listen and understand, we immediately seek to influence. We know that listening matters, but because of our preconceptions about leadership, influence matters more. Because they prioritize influence, leaders everywhere end up pushing their own agendas, and real listening goes out the window. Too often listening is what leaders do while they are waiting to instruct.

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Whenever we train people to embrace the impact of listening, the big aha moment is this:

“I didn’t understand the challenges

nearly as well as I thought I did.”

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BREAKTHROUGH MOMENTS

People begin to fully understand challenges by taking a step away from their own ideas. Listening is a tool, a way out of being trapped in ones own viewpoint. Leaders often believe that they understand what’s at stake, but are actually interacting with just pieces of the issue. Because they are not listening, they will get the diagnosis wrong initially. So all the work that comes after is ineffectual, wasting time and resources. I call this as the classic leadership error.

 

To make a real impact, it is crucial to create a culture where people are comfortable speaking up. I started studying psychologically safe organizations when I was a grad student at Columbia University’s Organizational Psychology program years ago, and here we are decades later still waiting for it to become a reality.

 

I for one am tired of waiting. Our work and research show we don’t have to. Simply put, people are more likely to speak up when leaders are actually listening. But telling leaders to listen more doesn’t change mindset or behavior. It takes work to advance the paradigm of leadership from an influence-centered model to one that brings people together to embrace, diagnose and respond to the real challenges— it’s not about bringing people together to play follow the leader.

-Al Preble

Founder, CLG