Is anybody listening?

While that may sound like a silly question when we know plenty of you download the podcast, listening is a leadership skill that can often go overlooked. For the next several weeks, join us as we explore the essential leadership skill of listening.

Relationships and Listening

Leonard Sweet, in his book Out of the Question…Into the Mystery, writes, “We know how to save the world.  We just don’t realize that we know what we know.  The way to save the world is not through more rules to live by, but through right relationships to live for.  People are fast losing the art of being with one another.”

Sweet prompts us to remember one of the essential foundations of listening – the relationships with the people around us.

Perhaps these questions will help you consider your own listening habits:

• Why is it that we recognize some people but not all people?
• Why do we look over some people without even noticing we have done so?
• And, if we do this with individuals, do we do this with the community and our neighbors?

7 Reasons No One is Listening to You

1. People are too busy and preoccupied
2. Would you believe some people need to learn how to listen
3. People think faster than they talk, leading to not listening
4. When people don’t hear what they want to hear, they stop listening
5. They don’t care for the person speaking
6. People don’t listen when there isn’t a logical progression of thought. They tune out.
7. Listening is reciprocal. People who demonstrate they’re not listening often do not listen either.

Be a Good Listener

One final reminder, you’ve been given two ears and one mouth. Use them in the correct proportion. Join us next week as we offer reminders about the characteristics of good listeners