Founder and Chief Culture Officer of Ideal Outcomes, Inc. Author of the new book Culture Ignited: 5 Disciplines for Adaptive Leadership.
One of my colleagues recently shared a lesson he learned from his three-year-old granddaughter. He was reading a picture book to her, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. As you may know, it’s one of those tales with a repetitive message that young kids can’t get enough of. In this telling, no matter what the caterpillar eats, he’s still hungry.
Granddad, having read the story numerous times, wanted to shake things up a bit and amuse himself by adding some plot twists of his own. Granddaughter wasn’t interested. She wanted the story that she knew and loved. She declared, “Granddad you talk too much!”
It’s a funny story that made me think about a serious error that many business leaders often make: They don’t listen to the needs of their employees. Instead, they’re too intent on telling them what they want.
There’s a well-known saying that when you talk, you’re doing nothing more than telling people stuff you already know. But when you listen, there’s a good chance you will learn something new. So why wouldn’t you want to listen?
I’ve had potential clients tell me that they believe they communicate effectively with their organizations, but when I probe a little deeper, I find that it’s mostly a one-way street. They inform their workforce rather than consult and listen. In fact, some research shows that companies invest 80% of their corporate communication resources on speaking.
Other research highlights the perils of not listening and the extent of the problem.
• In a 2021 study of more than 14,000 workers conducted by Oracle and Workplace Intelligence, 87% believed their company should be doing more to listen to their needs.
• A Microsoft study found that 57% of companies rarely, if ever, ask about their employees’ experience.
• The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) found that nearly 25% of employees in a 2019 survey didn’t feel safe voicing their opinions.
It’s time for leaders to learn to listen because the benefits are overwhelming. Business executives with a corporate culture in which they actively listen to what their teams tell them can build a relationship of mutual respect and trust. Employees at high-trust companies report 106% more energy at work, 76% more engagement, 74% less stress and 50% higher productivity compared with those at low-trust companies, according to research by neuroscientist Paul J. Zak.
While presenting and speaking are skills that are taught, little attention is given to the skill of listening, which in some ways is easier to acquire and just as impactful. What can you do to become a better listener?
1. Listen in more than one way.
Open dialogue with your teams through multiple channels. In my experience, the most valuable are one-on-one in-person meetings. Go out of your way to let the individual take the floor and express their concerns. The same applies when hosting a group meeting either in person or online. Conducting surveys of various kinds also, of course, show that you have a desire to listen and discover what’s on the minds of your workforce.
2. Watch what the other person says.
You not only use your ears to listen to what someone is telling you—you use your eyes as well. Nonverbal clues can reveal a lot. Notice facial expressions and body language (and tone of voice) to form a complete picture behind the words that are spoken.
3. Ask more questions.
Don’t constantly interrupt, but instead ask follow-up questions and repeat key points—in their words, not yours—to prove that you are listening. Pose more questions than you might feel is really necessary, not only because this can make someone appreciate that you are fully involved, but also because it could reveal something important you overlooked.
4. Show and tell.
Show people that you are taking their comments on board by making eye contact, nodding when appropriate and, in general, having an attentive body posture. This is their time to make their views known, and they deserve your full attention—even if you’ve had a dozen similar meetings the same day. Be sure to tell them that you appreciate the conversation and will get answers to anything you haven’t been able to immediately answer.
5. Act when you can.
There’s no better way to validate that you have listened to individual or team feedback than by acting on that input. This doesn’t necessarily mean delivering everything that someone asked for, especially if there are sound business reasons for doing otherwise. The important thing is to respond in the first instance, letting them know that you heard them. Then follow up by informing them what action you are taking or why certain actions cannot be taken. When you don’t follow through on employee feedback, it can be worse than not having asked in the first place.
As Dave Conrad wrote, “The bottom line is that people want to be heard. When decisions are made without getting input from people, they tend to hold back their ideas and take less initiative to make improvement.”
People want to know that they have been heard. There’s a tendency to think of listening as something that we do automatically rather than a skill that needs to be developed. But it’s a vital part of communication that can help improve collaboration, productivity and employee satisfaction.
There are many occasions when it is essential to listen to other people’s needs—and not just when you’re reading to a 3-year-old. Learn to listen because you listen to learn.
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