Are You Listening?

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: Humble Listening is the Key

Competency: listening

Who benefits: all of us can improve this skill

Consultant Usage: only useful if you wish to attract or retain clients; especially useful for executive coaches

What’s it about?  Ram Charan is one of my favorite bloggers.  In my estimation he is elevated to near-guru status.  When he speaks, I listen!  Recently he posted an article about listening.  I’m listening.  (That last sentence courtesy of the Dr. Frasier Crane Radio Show.)

I am afraid that listening gets short shrift among the many competencies required on the job.  I think that particularly we Americans are a bit arrogant when it comes to the skill of listening.  Challenge us and we immediately reply “Of course I am listening.”  But we are not.  Data gathered from 360 degree feedback reports strongly suggest listening skills need improvement.  And those of you with great listening skills … well you are likely to have your 360 respondents absolutely gushing about you.  Good listening skills spill over to other competencies.

I have taught listening skills all my life.  Yet just last week my neighbor said “Shut up, stop interrupting and listen!”  Guess I don’t practice what I preach.  Which is why I am absolutely delighted to refer and highly recommend “The Discipline of Listening”. 

Below is a list of 5 key practices Charan suggests.  But believe me, you don’t want to stop at my condensed list.  Read the article for the nuances and stories behind these key practices.  It is a 10 minute read worthy of your time.

Pan for the nuggets: train yourself to sift for the nuggets in a conversation

Consider the Source: work to understand each person’s frame of reference—where they are coming from

Prime the Pump: actively listen and ask for suggestions or solutions

Slow Down: it takes time to truly hear someone and to replay the essence of their thoughts back them so that both parties are clear on what was said

Keep Yourself Honest: ask yourself whether that person knows that they were heard and understood

A personal and pleasurable takeaway from this article was to read that “GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt has said that ‘humble listening’ is among the top four characteristics in leaders.”  Smart guy.

I am going to leave you now.  I am going out to find some people to listen to.  Have a good listening day.

Catch you later.

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.