Leaders, I have some good news and some bad news.
The good news is I stumbled upon a fascinating, insightful podcast illustrating the value of listening to others—not just personally, but professionally as well. And this is not just hearing others, but listening carefully, listening deliberately, listening for understanding.
It also addresses some of the pitfalls of not listening carefully (e.g., getting stuck in the #knowertrap, blindness caused by certainty).
If you are a #leader in your organization, I highly recommend checking this out and playing w/ some of the ideas in it. It emphasizes essential #communicationskills we discuss and practice in #middlepathleadership programs.
The bad news? The act of listening for understanding--not just listening for understanding, but also proving understanding to the other--while relatively simple, is not easy.
It's also courageous.
As science writer, Shankar Vedantam, and social psychologist, Harry Reis, point out...
SV: "The reason many of us fail to do this--fail to understand others or fail to have ourselves be understood--is that it's hard. It involves time and emotional effort."
HR: "And it involves vulnerability--being open to hearing something that you might not like."
SV: "So, in some ways the act of doing this involves courage..."
HR: "It definitely involves courage--the courage to tell you who I really am, and the courage to listen to who you really are."
Good stuff. Check it out.
Here's a link to the full article.
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For more on Middle Path Leadership, follow the #middlepathleadership hashtag on LinkedIn.
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