Listening in Leadership: Skills to Build Trust & Clarity

The world’s most influential leaders (both past and present) are not only great orators, but they’re also excellent listeners. In a world filled with fast data and faster deadlines, listening is one of the most powerful and rarest leadership skills. But it’s also one that you’ll want to work on building if your goal is to leave a legacy of trust and clarity behind.

​Why Leaders Need to Listen

​Most people listen to hear what someone has to say, but true listening is active listening, and that means working to understand the people around you. Understanding through listening goes deeper than simply responding to questions or jotting down notes. Active listening involves understanding a person’s motives, needs, and perspectives through both what they are saying–and what they aren’t saying.

​When you hone the skill of putting your own thoughts on hold while listening to someone speak (and not worrying about what your response will be or getting your point across), you can observe subtle clues like body language and the way that a person speaks. Generative listening is listening with your whole being and is the key to connecting with and building mutual understanding with those around you — it’s the lifeblood of any relationship.

​Listening will help you connect with the people you lead while reducing misunderstandings, building better collaboration, and enabling smarter, more efficient decision-making. But to be a better listener, you have to put aside your own ideas and the very human reflex of simply collecting information.

Top 4 Benefits of Being a Great Listener

The main goal of having a conversation is to share ideas. Sometimes those ideas are difficult to consume, and disagreeing or having a different opinion is part of the listening process. Even though becoming a better listener may mean hearing things that make you uncomfortable, there are some undeniable benefits of listening.

1. Communication Flow
   When people learn that you are a great listener, they will reflexively want to share more information with you. Conversations that once seemed hard will begin to flow, and relationships will be built.
2. Reducing Assumptions and Biases
   It is impossible to know what someone is thinking without asking. Read that again. The only way to know what someone is really thinking is to discuss the topic at hand with them. When you learn to effectively listen and communicate, you will remove biases and assumptions (resulting in learning the truth about any situation).
3. Encouraging Learning Mindsets
   The most productive environments are those in which people are constantly learning. Effective communication encourages learning.
4. Increasing Innovation Through Deeper Insight Into Challenges
   If you’ve ever sat down to discuss a problem or find solutions to an issue, you’ve likely learned that great innovation can only come from having a deep understanding of all challenges presented. You can’t do this unless you take the time to listen to those around you.

Cultivating Your Presence

It’s hard to listen. Really. Learning to be fully present with both your body and mind requires both practice and discipline. The first step towards being a better listener is learning to listen to yourself and acknowledge your own thoughts and feelings through mindfulness practice. Observing your own thoughts and emotions without judgment can quiet your own inner chatter, making you a better listener.

It helps to think of yourself as a sponge: if you clear out all your excess water, you will be better able to absorb the thoughts and feelings of others (this is what happens when the noise in your own mind is stilled). You can then transition this practice to include others. 

• Letting go of impulsive reactions: how often have you wanted to react to what someone was saying mid-sentence? Even if you don’t interrupt a conversation with your words, you may be reacting with your body or expressions. These little impulses stop the flow of conversation and can rupture a relationship.

• Making room for full engagement with others: you can’t really hear and understand another person if your head is full of noise. Clear your own thoughts before engaging with anyone else.
• Creating a welcome space: It will be hard at first to teach mindful listening to those around you, but that’s why the leadership position is powerful. You can create a true listening and conversing space by setting the example. When those around you see that you listen intently, they will learn to respect the space you create.

By refining their posture of listening, leaders foster deeper trust and connection — the foundation of strong, resilient teams.

Results that Speak

Something amazing happens when you learn to listen. People feel confident that what they say has weight and meaning, which leads to trust in your feedback and decisions. This is invaluable as a leader. Effective conversations also have the power to reduce defensiveness amongst teams.

Essentially, leaders who learn to listen well foster teams that, in turn, communicate effectively and openly. Listening is a rare skill amongst leaders, but it is the most impactful one. Really hearing what the people around you say isn’t a passive activity. It’s a deliberate choice that builds trust, removes confusion, and reveals the deepest truths. 

Taking the time to learn to be a better listener sends the message that you value the people you lead and seek to understand them before rushing to any conclusions. As a leader, there are few things more valuable than practicing conscious listening–the one powerful move that propels teams forward with confidence.

If you’re ready to deepen your listening practice, our free Reboot Your Listening email course delivers six days of practical content to help you strengthen this essential leadership skill. Sign up to receive one email per day with insights and exercises you can put to use immediately.