Listening – the underrated tool for risk management

In boardrooms and executive teams, risk management is a standing agenda item. Leaders invest in policies, audits, insurance, and compliance systems. But often, one critical ingredient does not get enough attention — and it’s not a policy or a framework. It’s listening.

What Messages Are People Receiving Through Your Leadership Behaviours?

In my previous article, I shared that ‘Many of us underestimate what we are capable of.’ This talked about As leaders, we often focus on the words we say and the policies we put in place, believing they are sending the right messages needed to guide their teams. While words and policies are important, what many leaders forget is that they are constantly sending messages—24/7—through their behaviours, body language, and implicit actions. And here’s the kicker: it is not the leader who gets to interpret what these messages mean. It is the people around them who decide what story those behaviours tell.

Messages received is what matters.

Labelling Divides, Listening Builds Bridges

Have you noticed how much and how often we label others?

It is easier to place people in neat categories—labels that we believe define others’ values, intentions, or intelligence. Whether it’s generational terms like “Boomer” and “Gen Z,” political identities like “right-wing” and “woke”, gender, race, personalities, religion, or even viewpoints on contentious topics like vaccines or reproductive rights, labels serve as quick identifiers.

Leadership emergence is NOT the same as Leadership effectiveness

Have you seen ‘mistaken’ leadership appointments or promotions where people who appeared to have leadership potential did not turn out to be the best leaders?

On the flipside, have you seen people with great leadership capabilities or potential being overlooked, perhaps because they are not as visible or do not fit the ‘prototype’ of who looks, sounds or feels leader-like?