Thank you Roger for sharing your thoughts on listening. I enjoyed the read, found it insightful and thoughtful.
In particular, I loved this observation..."Ironically, his colleagues told him how much they valued his judgement, but only after they’d been given a good listening to first."
This simple sentence, says so much about the impact listening can have on a colleague. I value your judgement (thoughts, observations, etc.), but only when I feel heard.
And, again as you say, listening like this saves time and money, (less misunderstandings, less re-work), and builds connection and trust within the team.
I agree with your starting two questions...my question is how do we get them in the room to even have those questions?
I know what you mean about the first two questions. Heads can be so busy, stopping to even talk about how well they listen to each other can be tricky.
It's made worse should you fear you might be met with a hostile response by merely hinting that someone or everyone's quality of listening isn't what it could be.
At the start of a session about listening though, as just one part of a wider development programme, both questions can be a fun thing to do. Notwithstanding that context and the mood in the room is everything, of course, they can somehow tap into the way we can all fool ourselves. Deep down, we know that it's-not-me-it's-everyone-else thinking habit has limitations. Surfacing it, and wondering how helpful it is, can be a really useful thing to do!
Thank you Roger for sharing your thoughts on listening. I enjoyed the read, found it insightful and thoughtful.
In particular, I loved this observation..."Ironically, his colleagues told him how much they valued his judgement, but only after they’d been given a good listening to first."
This simple sentence, says so much about the impact listening can have on a colleague. I value your judgement (thoughts, observations, etc.), but only when I feel heard.
And, again as you say, listening like this saves time and money, (less misunderstandings, less re-work), and builds connection and trust within the team.
I agree with your starting two questions...my question is how do we get them in the room to even have those questions?
Thank you Roger
Colin
Thanks Colin - as ever.
I know what you mean about the first two questions. Heads can be so busy, stopping to even talk about how well they listen to each other can be tricky.
It's made worse should you fear you might be met with a hostile response by merely hinting that someone or everyone's quality of listening isn't what it could be.
At the start of a session about listening though, as just one part of a wider development programme, both questions can be a fun thing to do. Notwithstanding that context and the mood in the room is everything, of course, they can somehow tap into the way we can all fool ourselves. Deep down, we know that it's-not-me-it's-everyone-else thinking habit has limitations. Surfacing it, and wondering how helpful it is, can be a really useful thing to do!