Page 24 - September 2019

FIELD NOTES

Hearing vs Listening -

A Lesson in Leadership

James (Jim) Dent, LSSBB, DTM

When someone comes to you with a problem or on understanding what your boss needs, and

complaint, do you hear what they have to say, or not on excuses for why the report is the same.
do you listen in order to understand?
Listen, learn, and lead.— John C. Maxwell
Most people do not listen with the intent to

understand; they listen with the intent to For a leader to be able to gain trust and
reply.—Stephen R. Covey influence others, they must be genuinely
interested in people. The leader must genuinely
There is a tendency for people to immediately understand people’s opinions and perspectives.

react and either tell the person your opinion Effective active listening, and not just hearing, is
or give the person a solution; before really a most important leadership skill and behavior.
understanding the underlying nature of why the
person came to you. You think you answered One friend, one person who is truly

their issue satisfactorily because they told you, understanding, who takes the trouble to
OK and walked away. However, they may be listen to us as we consider a problem, can
walking away thinking that you were not really change our whole outlook on the world.
interested in listening to them. —Dr. E. H. Mayo

One of the most sincere forms of respect is How do we effectively and actively listen?
actually listening to what another has to Listen more and talk less. During a conversation,
say.—Bryant H. McGill a good leader will listen 75% and speak 25% of the

time. If you truly want to bore another person,
Your manager tells you that your weekly then talk when the other person really wants
report which you emailed him yesterday is you to listen.
lacking important details he needs. You respond

with, “But I provided the same level of details Most successful people I’ve known are the ones
I do every week.” Active listening would’ve who do more listening than talking.—Bernard
involved an immediate response such as, “What Baruch
specific details do you need?” You should focus

24 ONE COMMUNITY