"While some may be impressed with how well you speak, the right people will be impressed with how well you listen. Great leaders are great listeners, and therefore my message today is a simple one – talk less and listen more. The best leaders are proactive, strategic, and intuitive listeners. They recognize knowledge and wisdom are not gained by talking, but by listening. Take a moment and reflect back on any great leader who comes to mind…you’ll find they are very adept at reading between the lines. The best leaders possess the uncanny ability to understand what is not said, witnessed, or heard."I agree whole heartedly and I'd add that it's not just about 'reading between the lines,' but asking the right questions to better understand the intent of the one communicating. Leaders who know how to listen to others are far more influential and impacting than leaders choosing only to draw upon their own ideas, knowledge and understanding. A leader who listens broadens his scope of ideas, his range of knowledge and the vastness of his understanding exponentially.
So, why don't more leaders listen? I suspect that pride keeps many from wanting to hear and possibly adopt the ideas of others... (We have all seen the movies and sit-coms where the subordinate patronizingly makes the "leader" feel that he came up with the idea so as to get him to adopt it. Such parities are comical because sadly and all too often they are true.) Too many leaders are more concerned with getting the credit than they are in seeing the organization succeed. As many great leaders have said throughout history, "There is no limit to the amount of good that people can accomplish, if they don't care who gets the credit." (Truman, Reagan, and others)
We can talk all day about the need for a leader to enable his team to contribute to the overall vision and direction of the organization, but unless we discuss how that is done practically it is likely to become one of those 'good principles' that is never actually implemented. Listening is the most PRACTICAL step any leader can take to empower, equip and mobilize their team!
