Leaders, LISTEN Up!
Why should leaders pick up the skills of active listening in leadership?
Before we go into the details of what is active listening and why is it important, let me share a quote on listening that stood out to me:
The biggest communication problem is that we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.
Leaders have asked me this age-old question of how to communicate better. If you want my honest opinion as an executive coach in Singapore, leaders learn to communicate better when they apply active listening in leadership. In short, you communicate better by listening better.
In this article, I will break down why is active listening important in the workplace and tell you exactly how to have active listening skills that help you communicate more effectively as a leader.
What is active listening and why is it important?
Did you know that humans generally listen at a 25% comprehension rate? Imagine how much more intentional leaders must be in displaying active listening in leadership.
Active listening is a technique that requires you to:
Pay close attention to the speaker
Listening effectively means devoting your attention to whoever is speaking. It involves filtering out distractions so that you can understand the heart behind what is being communicated.
Restate what is being said
Whatever you do, don’t make it seem forced. Your employees will be the first to pick up on your body language. They will know if you are not sincere or if you are just going through the motions.
Ask questions
The final step is for you to ask strategic questions that help you further gain clarity about what was shared. Refrain from asking questions that attack their point of view. Developing active listening skills requires you to let go of your personal bias and preconceptions in order to understand another person’s point of view.
Listening goes beyond hearing what the other party is saying. A great listener does not just hear what someone is saying; they “hear” what they are feeling.
The reason why it is important to practice active listening in leadership is because leaders who are active listeners can effectively build trust, receive valuable feedback, and resolve conflict. When leaders master the art of how to have active listening skills, they create an environment for their employees to feel safe to share their opinions.
Here are a few compelling reasons that answer the question: why is active listening important in the workplace?
Active listening is a display of empathy.
Having been an executive coach for over 14 years and counting, I cannot stress enough how empathy has emerged in this new era as a sought-after leadership trait that effective leaders employ.
Leaders who actively listen show that they are genuinely interested and invested in what their employees have to say. When leaders model active listening in their leadership, it breeds a culture of empathy in the workplace.
Active listening cultivates trust.
Leaders who fail to listen tend to be viewed as arrogant. In those scenarios, being perceived as arrogant immediately compromises the level to which employees feel they can trust their leaders.
On the flip side, leaders with active listening skills demonstrate a level of humility, which opens the space for employees to develop a bond with their leaders.
Active listening creates space for feedback.
When leaders display active listening in leadership, they build an environment where employees know they can share their opinions without fear of judgement.
If leaders only listen with the intention to counter everything their employees share, sooner or later, there will be no one who bothers to share their views. Can you imagine the amount of valuable input you could be missing out on?
Active listening paves the way for performance.
Building on that, my experience as a leadership coach has shown me that feedback is the gateway to unlocking higher levels of performance.
A lack of feedback results in stagnation. An abundance of feedback leads to constant improvement, which in turn translates to consistent performance.
Barriers to active listening and how to overcome them
If leaders truly understood why is active listening important in the workplace, what then is stopping them from understanding how to have active listening skills?
In my years of being a leadership coach in Singapore, I’ve heard executives and managers in leadership positions candidly share their challenges. Many of these challenges are what’s preventing them from modelling active listening in leadership.
Here are the most common ones I get and a sneak peek into the action plan I suggest in my leadership coaching sessions:
Barrier #1: Focus
Leaders are often juggling multiple things on their minds. This makes it tough to maintain focus and be present in a conversation.
All the major decisions or split-second decisions that leaders have to make end up becoming the very distractions that cause them to come across as poor listeners.
ACTION PLAN: Block your time to hear your employees out. Set aside 5-10 minutes before the meeting to clear your mind. Put away your phones and other devices and intentionally block out all distractions simply to give your employees the time and space to be heard. Without the constant “ping” of notifications, you set yourself in good stead to go into the meeting with a clear head.
Barrier #2: Ego
Leaders often have a tendency to feel that they have to be the bearer of all the answers. They feel that they are responsible for making the executive decision and convincing everyone that it’s the “right decision.”
What I share in my executive coaching sessions is that the root of this is in fact, pride or ego. Holding on to ego prevents a leader from listening with the intention to understand and is a stumbling block to effective leadership.
ACTION PLAN: Always ask your employees for their opinions. Open the floor for feedback. If you catch yourself trying to “correct” their point of view – even if it’s taking place in your mind – quickly put a stop to it. Giving your employees a chance to speak up will soon make you see that you don’t have to be the one coming up with the great ideas, because the best ideas were hidden in your people all along.
Barrier #3: Bias
We all have biases, whether we realise it or not. These biases form a lens through which we interpret what others are saying.
If we enter a conversation with a preconceived notion, it can make it hard for us to hear what another person is truly saying.
ACTION PLAN: Be slow to make any assumptions. Conduct an audit of your own assumptions. This requires you to grow in self-awareness to spot your own biases and not imposing them on the conversation at hand. The best way to challenge assumptions is to clarify them. Clarify by asking the right questions, where you ask questions with the purpose of connection rather than correction.
Active listening is the new way of communication
One thing I’ve noticed in my years as a leadership coach in Singapore is that a lot of emphasis is placed on communication, or talking. There’s a lot of glamour associated with leaders with exceptional communication skills and eloquence. To the detriment of many leaders, there’s not much fanfare when it comes to listening skills.
What they don’t realise is that leaders who communicate without listening bear the risk of sounding like empty gongs. Whereas leaders who communicate with an understanding of why active listening is important in the workplace emerge as the more effective communicators in the long run.
