Why Is Janet Leaving?

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: So You Think You’re a Good Listener (HBR Article)

Competency: listening

Who benefits: bosses

Consultant Usage: coaching 360 feedback; management trainers

What’s it about?  Got to keep today’s entry short.  The article I am recommending isn’t much longer than this entry…so go read it, darn it!

Who is Janet and why is she leaving?  Janet is an excellent employee who is leaving because her boss doesn’t listen to her.  Oh, he thinks he does.  He is sure they have open lines of communication. 

The article says that in an analysis of 4,000 360-degree feedback reports, the largest gap between managers’ self-evaluation and those who filled out the feedback forms was the manager’s receptiveness to hear bad news about difficult issues. 

Most bosses probably aren’t quite as good a listener as they think.  But try telling them! 

So here is my wicked thought for today.  Go to this Harvard Business Review site and purchase a reprint.  When it arrives, open with gloves on and shred the envelope it comes in.  When the boss is out of the office, slip in and slip it into his/her in-basket!

Oh, and if the boss comes around asking who did it this, don’t lie.  Say to the boss “Oh, it could have been any of us.” 

Or blame it on Janet, she’s leaving anyway.   

[tags]listening, listening skills, 360 feedback, executive coaching, listening training, giving feedback, communication skills, giving bad news, bill bradley, william bradley,  bradley[/tags]

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.