Listen
We’ve told you as a leader you must listen. You’ve heard it a million times. Let’s explore why listening is so important.
- While you have the luxury of a perch that shows you the big picture you are far from the ground where the real work happens. You need that insight.
- Your thinking needs to see the light of day with a pause for valid feedback.
- You aren’t the smartest person in the room. That’s Leadership 101. You need the bigger brains that your team possesses. This input might not be pleasant or delivered perfectly. It’s still valuable.
Act
What do you do with the information you gather from listening well?
- Of course listening helps you as a leader. There is also great value for your team members as you listen to them if you all move forward as a result. What action can you take that knocks down a barrier to progress?
- There is simply nothing worse than providing input, information, and opinion and find that it was ignored.
- Take action on the input. Explain that you are taking action and give credit to the person providing the input. If you aren’t going to use the input, explain why.
Trust
In a fast moving situation you can get away with short cut language and a quick order to be followed. The only reason you can get away with this though is if a trust has been developed.
Trust comes from the blocking and tackling represented in the points above. You look for collaboration. You listen genuinely. You act on what you hear. If you disagree with the input or you don’t use it you always follow-up. You acknowledge the feedback and input.
Here’s the hard part. You can’t hear, not listen and not act or all possibility for trust is lost. Then people are just doing a job. You can’t ask for extraordinary effort. You can’t win.
