Putting Servant Leadership Into Practice: Effective Listening

Every day, employees across the country receive more than 1,800 messages. From phone calls and emails to memos and face-to-face conversations, our workforce is bombarded with information. How can we manage so many messages throughout our day? The truth is, we don’t. According to the International Listening Association, we are distracted, forgetful or preoccupied an astounding 75 percent of the time that we’re listening—meaning there’s not much listening happening in our offices! Imagine how much more progress could be made as businesses and in our own leadership journeys if we truly valued and practiced engaged listening.

Robert Greenleaf, father of the modern day Servant Leadership framework, identified ‘listening’ as a primary characteristic—and differentiating factor—of servant-leaders, or individuals who lead by investing in, focusing on and caring about the success of those individuals being led. Considering that servant-led companies outperform all other companies in the S&P 500 by returning, on average, 24.4 percent annually, listening is a cornerstone of good leadership and good business.

Effective listening enables organizations to create an environment in which employees feel heard, a critical component of maintaining a satisfied, engaged workforce. As Jim Collins notes in his book “Good to Great,” “There’s a huge difference between the opportunity to ‘have your say’ and the opportunity to be heard. The good-to-great leaders understand this distinction, creating a culture wherein people had a tremendous opportunity to be heard and, ultimately, for the truth to be heard.”

Luckily, listening is a skill that can be learned. Servant-leaders practice effective listening daily to help build relationships, gain new insights and ideas, and communicate respect, warmth and positive regard. In return, employees feel connected – and that their opinions and role matter.

In their book “Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership,” James Sipe and Servant-Leadership expert Don Frick, one of our own Crew members, composed a list of listening skills for leaders to put into practice. During conversations, ask yourself:

Do my body and face show that I am involved in the conversation and interested in what the person is saying?
Am I interrupting or hurrying the person along?
Am I asking appropriate, open questions to draw the person out?
Am I using my own words to clarify the person’s message and reflect his or her feelings?
Am I not judging, criticizing, analyzing or trying to fix the person?
Am I responding to feedback in a non-defensive manner?

Or, if you want to learn more about listening before putting it to practice, watch this fascinating TedTALK by sound expert Julian Treasure, who shares five ways we can become better, more active listeners. We also invite you to learn even more on listening from our August 2013 blog.

Research tells us that 85 percent of what we know we have learned through listening. Imagine all of the knowledge we can gain about our organization, our employees and ourselves by engaging in effective listening!