Organizations spend thousands of dollars on helping leaders identify opportunities for development and growth, often grounded on comptency based models.
Listening is one of those skills that can be leveraged across many competencies to manage how others perceive us. Here are three competencies that organizations typically want leaders to excel in – and where listening makes a big difference:
Building better/proficient/effective/productive teams: The more you listen to your team, individually and together, the more information you have about where they need support, guidance and resources. You’ll find out what may stop them from working well together, or what may get in the way of achieving goals.
Executive “presence” – the confidence to listen, instead of speak will, well, honestly, make you seem wise, caring, and “in touch” with your people. Part of any great executive “tool kit” is the ability to ask a simple question and then listen deeply beyond what is said.
Building and maintaining effective relationships: How do you know what others want and need from you? Simply encourage others to talk to you by listening to what they have to say.
Listening is a skill that takes practice. And what you listen FOR is an important element of listening.
Check back to our blog in the coming weeks for more on listening skills.