The most important management skill
Listening.
Did you hear that?
Listening.
I’m glad that you got it this time :)
We have become knowledge guzzlers. In the quest of becoming knowledge super heroes, we have become like rats running on a hamster wheel. The fuel that makes us running in this race forever is the fear of missing out.
Living the life has become a race to achieve knowledge. As if God is going to hand over a medallion for our heroic acts of chasing knowledge.
God Forbid, if we were to ever miss out on -
- The top 10 things Elon Musk does when he wakes up
- Why Mark Zuckerberg takes an annual salary of $1 and you should too
- The top 10 reasons why your employees want to join Google and you should too
- How I changed the world by working 4 hours a week
- How to launch your next startup in $99 and beat Chris with his $100 startup model.
I’m sure you get the drift.
The constant running strains our mental stamina. We are either drifting from one thing to another or busy watching the soap opera of our own thoughts.
It leads to a huge listening impediment. It becomes even more problematic for leaders. From my perspective, listening is by far the most important trait that any leader needs to have.
By the way, I’m not only talking about listening as in hearing but also interpreting someone’s thoughts through facial expressions, body language and posture.
Being in the moment. Giving someone your undivided attention so that you can completely soak in the message with its full intent. Unlike our quintessential geek of Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper, who listens well but has a hard time understanding people.
Apart from many things a leader does, setting the pace of the organization and getting feedback are the most important skills.
How can a leader receive feedback when they have a listening impediment?Show me a leader that doesn’t listen to the organization’s rhythm and I would show you a failed organization or one in making.
Wouldn’t someone with a listening impediment miss the core issues dealt with the employees? As a leader, one has to weed out the issues that either lead to misalignment or negative impact on the culture.
The success of the company depends on the cohesiveness of the team i.e. the culture and social engineering aspect of it. It’s no different than the profound saying of “culture eats strategy for breakfast”.
One can only lead by setting the right culture, hiring the right people, listening, understanding and ironing out any wrinkles.
One can’t lead without having an ear to the ground and listening well.
So, practice the listening habit.
Be exceptional at it.
Let your company scale new heights.
Win.