Listening

Today I want to focus on listening.

Have you ever felt like you were being heard? Do you remember how good that made you feel?

Or have you ever experienced a situation where you were sure the other person wasn’t listening to you? How did that make you feel? Devalued? Not worthy? Unimportant?

These are not great feelings to have.

In my last post, I challenged you to begin paying attention to not only how you are feeling but also to how you are influencing others.

Paying attention requires listening.

And I mean really listening.

Not just the words and sounds you hear with your ears.

Not just the physical behaviours or nonverbal communication signals you see with your eyes.

But also what you feel.

What you feel is what Otto Scharmer calls listening from the heart. Something intangible but real.

This might be what you call your sixth sense. Or that gut feeling that tells you something is off – so to speak.

This is truly worth listening to.

So you are listening to what is being said, how it is being said, and what is not being said.

To truly listen means being present and focusing on the person or people in front of you.

As a leader, this could be one of your team members or the entire team. They can be overwhelming at times, I know.

You can deal with the overwhelm though. You can breathe deeply and ground yourself. You can care more for the person in front of you than yourself in that moment.

That’s what listening proves – that you care more for the person in front of you than yourself.

This is the gift every leader should be giving to their team.

That to me is leadership in black and white.

Photo: Tammy Brimner, TLBVelo Photography