"Great leaders are great listeners who know their best asset is the people they work with."
~ Sir Richard Branson, CEO Virgin Group
As an executive, board member or business owner, your ability to effectively lead, collaborate, and diminish internal stress reactions will increase the more that you can sit in your Listening Conversations without judgment, in full awareness of all spoken and unspoken elements, and in a willingness to want to understand.
The result will be more productive, empowered and satisfied team members who feel heard and valued, and greater organizational effectiveness under your leadership.
The following practices will hone your listening--and leadership--skills, thereby helping create greater, more productive, collaboration:
Practice:
Enter into a conversation with someone whom you usually do not communicate well and practice staying with the other person.
Listen to the what the other person is communicating without planning a response.
If your attention drifts, internally ask yourself, “Am I listening?” and turn your attention back to actively listening.
In conversations where your attention drifts, keep reminding yourself, “I choose to listen. I choose to listen. I choose to listen”.
Practice:
When you are in conversation with someone about a subject that you do not understand or like, you can practice asking the question, “I’m curious, tell me, why do you think/feel…”
You can acknowledge the other person (even if you don’t agree) by saying, “thank you for sharing your thoughts on that, I appreciate where you’re coming from.”
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To create more productive, empowered and satisfied teams, leading to greater organizational effectiveness under your leadership, contact me to schedule a complimentary conversation about executive coaching.
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