One of the key attributes that separates leaders from managers is the ability to listen, and I mean really listen. It is not about listening to respond or even pretending to listen so that your team feel heard. It is about seeking to understand before being understood.
The above Maori proverb is from the fabulous book "Legacy" by James Kerr (highly recommend). James used it to highlight the importance of a "Blue Head" when the All Blacks were playing under pressure. I love this saying because to me it highlights the importance of active listening and actually hearing what your team or people within your organisation have to say.
Nobody else is in a better position to understand what your organisation does well or what they could improve. It would be fair to say for majority of organisation that they would not be able to function without people. I am sure there are some that think they could however they still employ people and unfortunately continue to treat them as either numbers or something that can be replaced so easily by someone else.
If we have a look at the above Maori proverb we have listening comes knowledge, how important do you think company knowledge is to an organisation. It is huge, one of the area's of concerns for some organisations is trying to get knowledge out of their long serving people or get to a point where this knowledge is shared regularly with more people so it can be used to better everyone at the organisation.
Once we have knowledge we can move into understanding. How many times have you been in a team where your Manager has asked for feedback however during the so called session it becomes obvious that they have already made up their mind on which direction they are going to take. It happens often if you have someone who is there to manage people rather than lead them. Leaders create an environment, some might say a psychology safe environment, where they listen to what their people have to say and take on board the feedback to gain understanding.
From this understanding we gain wisdom, we get to a place where we can fosters our people, we can foster new ideas or concepts, we can develop our people to be better people. As leaders our role is to create betters people or for the All Blacks, they believed that better people create better All Blacks. To create better people our role is to provide purpose, clarity and a safe learning environment. It is also to create an environment where your team develops and understands their responsibilities, sets expectations with each other, have a common language and understand and respect their whanau (family).
Next time you get the chance, see how well you listen to the next person you have a conversation with whether in your team or not. After the conversation review how it went and how well did you listen or did you start thinking about your response or story that you want to tell or do you look at your phone or computer. Did you gain some knowledge, wisdom and wellbeing.
You want to learn more about People First Leadership, check out People: People First People Always. Great book that provides real life examples of key leadership attributes and written in an easy conversational style - www.peoplefirstpeoplealways.com
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