Listening: One of the Best Kept Secrets of Leaders
Good leaders don't just magically produce a vision. First, they gather intelligence by listening to the people who interact with the world in various situations at different levels. But listening is not easy: conversation is usually divided between two states: speaking and waiting to speak.
Apart from being quiet and giving your full attention, true listening also depends upon your awareness of the other party’s facial and body language, emotions, and temperament.
Leaders who listen well are rewarded with learning new insights and building trustworthy relationships which results in loyalty.
Download this point of view paper, “Listening: One of the Best Kept Secrets of Leaders”from Communispond to learn how to address the listening challenge by using techniques to achieve active listening, enabling you to ultimately leverage what you learned to build a relationship with your stakeholders, positioning yourself and your organization for success.
Here are some quotes that I hope will inspire you to become a more effective listener and a better leader:
The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.
– Ralph Nichols
[Tweet "You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time ~M. Scott Peck"]
[Tweet "If speaking is silver, then listening is gold ~Turkish Proverb"]
To listen fully means to pay close attention to what is being said beneath the words. You listen not only to the 'music,' but to the essence of the person speaking. You listen not only for what someone knows, but for what he or she is.
– Peter Senge
[Tweet "It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen ~Oliver Wendell Holmes"]
[Tweet "Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply ~Stephen R. Covey"]
Most captains of industry listen only sometimes, and they remain ordinary leaders. But a few, the great ones, never stop listening. That's how they get word before anyone else of unseen problems and opportunities.
– Peter Nulty
National Business Hall of Fame Fortune Magazine
[Tweet "A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something ~Wilson Mizner"]
