Communication would cease to be a monologue and the number one complaint

Your coaching would have hit the mark and people would take more ownership

Motivations and values of others would be clear to you so you know what would get people fired up

Difficult conversations would have been an opportunity to understand each other and strengthen relationships

Trust would have been built so that we would feel safe to be open and honest with you

Staff engagement would not be an issue

Meetings would be productive and valuable where people learn, solve problems and make informed decisions

Collaboration would actually work and produce meaningful outcomes beyond mere coordination

Inclusion would be the way we do things around here and diversity sought after

Misunderstandings and conflict would have been avoided or addressed early

Cross-cultural differences would be understood, respected and valued as opportunities

Managing change would have been more effective, with concerns on the table and dealt with

Major risks would have been raised and mitigated

Better, informed decisions would have been made, avoiding the rework, not repeating past mistakes

Innovation would be based on the best ideas, not the best promoted idea

Customer complaints would have been avoided or addressed efficiently with respect

Learning and continuous improvement would be something we do everyday

How much time and effort would be saved with better listening? How much better would service quality and trust be with better listening? How much innovation and continuous improvement could be made through better listening? How much would staff engagement and feeling of inclusion improve with better listening? How much business value would be created by being agile with teams that embrace and contribute to change?

As Oscar Trimboli, author of Deep Listening says, “We spend 55% of our time listening during the day, yet 2% of the world has been trained on how to listen.”

Roger Schwartz, author of Smart Leaders Smarter Teams, observed through 30 years that many leaders, particularly under pressure, get stuck in the mindset of unilateral control, where they try to achieve goals by influencing others without being influenced in return. Unilateral control mindset creates poor decisions, resistance to change, defensiveness, and stress.

Poor listening with a unilateral control mindset is a recipe for getting stuck in the status quo.

Quietly Powerful Leaders are the best listeners and have the humility to being influenced by what they hear. The impact of their listening is felt by their peers, teams, customers and anyone they come in contact with.

Do you listen to be influenced? Are you developing your leaders to listen and be open to being influenced?

Related articles:

7 reasons why we need more Quietly Powerful Leaders now, more than ever
Are you a leader that brings out the best from a mix of different people?
7 steps to extract value from people who disagree with you