Listen to Team By Heart, not Ears

MunnaPrawin
Nov 4 · 3 min read

In my current role as a QA Manager, listening to my teams, understanding their issues and guiding them towards goals is central to the success of projects I deal with. I must listen to my teams’ concerns and issues. To listen better, control your tongue. But to listen best, consider your heart.

Recently, I encountered with a situation in which, we had an employee in our team who kept making mistakes, not giving best and was reaching to work late everyday. He was put on PIP but no improvement. His supervisor said he had tried everything. And asked me to provide the feedback to HR to release him from team and organization.

Instead of giving feedback to fire him, I sat down with him to TALK. I learned that, he is under serious pressure due to his personal life. He had to move out his home and was going through a divorce, custody battle plus facing financial problems. He felt he was on the brink of a nervous breakdown. Asking for help wasn’t one of his strong points. I asked him to go on a leave for couples of weeks to sort out the personal issues. When he returned, he went from being one of the most difficult employees to one of the most POSITIVE influences in the workplace.

The best way to get to know your employees is to push up your sleeves and work side by side. Most employees feel happy if there is someone to listen their concerns, problems. And also they enjoy sharing what they do and how they do it, but they may not get the opportunity to share very often. Get out of the office and get to know them and the work. Let your employees tell you what they do and let them see that you care. Who knows? You may even learn something new.

Managers and Leaders, it’s humble request to all of you like me, kindly use your heart not ears all the time. Listening as a leader, is equally as important as leading a team. So if we aim to become better listeners, we must think about principles of the heart. People can sense how we feel about what they are saying. Do we respect what they are talking about? Do we care about them? They can tell a lot by the way we communicate, by the way we are looking at them, and our body language.

Believe in Being Human and make sure to use the HUMAN-to-HUMAN approach when dealing with employees. Take time to get to know your people, meet them where they are, and be flexible. It’s a person you are dealing with and not just a statistic on a graph. A little empathy goes a long way.

Listening is an act of giving. When we listen, we communicate so much more than when we speak.

Tilicho Labs

A boutique app development studio based out of India.

MunnaPrawin

Written by

Prawin is a Quality Assurance Manager at Medloop Ltd. London. Passionate in developing teams, implementing effective QA Practices and test strategies.

Tilicho Labs

A boutique app development studio based out of India.

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