Leadership is Learning to Listen

Leadership is learning to listen.

Leadership is more than thinking, talking, and writing. Leadership combines contemplation and action.

Leadership is telling the next part of the story well. Leadership is getting out of your own way. Leadership is setting a good example.

The leaders who make the most lasting impression on me, the leaders who have changed the way I lead, are people who listen.

Listening is more than hearing. Listening is more than waiting for someone else to finish speaking, or thinking about what you are going to say next while someone else talks. Listening is more than looking for ways to argue against what someone else is saying.

Listening is part of connecting at the deepest possible level. Leaders learn to listen to themselves, to other people, and to the world around them.

Listening to yourself includes deep recognition and appreciation for yourself. It includes knowing your core values, and how you translate them into action in your life. Listening includes knowing and enjoying who you really are, your truest self. Listening to yourself includes understanding “Why?” as much as “How?”

Listening to other people includes taking time to appreciate what they mean as well as the words they say. It is when your true self recognizes the true selves around you. Listening includes sharing their core values, and understanding how they reflect those values in what they do. Listening to other people includes helping them listen to themselves as you listen to yourself.

Listening to the world around you includes connecting to its deepest part in each detail. It includes knowing how you make a difference in each moment. Listening to the world around you includes seeing how your core values contribute to its overall significance.

Who are the leaders who listen to you?

How deeply are you listening today?

[Image by ebnt-photo]