Leading by Listening

How well do you listen – REALLY LISTEN – to the people you lead?  Do you hear what’s being said, or do you hear just what you want to hear?  Good leaders are good listeners.

 

Many people find it difficult to admit they don’t have all the answers.  Well, who does?  Good leaders listen.  Great leaders REALLY LISTEN – and they hear what’s being said and what’s NOT being said.

 

An interesting book by Roger Nierenberg, Maestro, tells a surprising story about a business executive who learned about listening from an orchestra conductor.  The executive visited several orchestra rehearsals and heard what the orchestra sounds like from the viola section, then the horns, then the double basses.  When the CEO is invited to stand on the podium by the conductor, the CEO hears the whole orchestra from an entirely different perspective – and what a glorious full sound it is!

 

The CEO then compared the orchestra’s performance to his own company’s performance, and realized that if his company performed as well and as harmoniously as the orchestra, what a difference it would make!  But it would require the CEO to listen to his people as carefully and as intently as the conductor listened to the orchestra.

 

Before long, the CEO realized that most of his assumptions about leadership were wrong.  The conductor said to the executive:  “It is a wonderful thing to project confidence and authority.  But your main channel of influence with an orchestra is your listening.  Every time you come to the podium, ask yourself, ‘Am I really hearing what’s going on in this room?  Am I being affected by what I’m hearing?’  If not, then you must take some of your attention away from what you yourself are doing and focus it on the people you’re here to lead.”

 

Coaching Moments:

1.      Do you insist on “do it my way” or do you “invite people in” to share their ideas, talents, gifts?

2.      How open and receptive are you to listening to what your people have to say?

3.      How do people know you are open and receptive?

Comments

[Jude]

Charlie-

I love the analogy of the CEO to a conductor. I wish the principal in my school listened with the same kind of ear--that it takes many perspectives to make adjustments & hear the harmony!

Jude Eastman ~ Life & Soul Coach
http://stirringthespiritwithin.com