L for listening

01 Jan L for listening

Have you ever heard these lines?

“Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears.”

(This is one of the most famous lines from Julius Caesar, spoken by Mark Antony.)

Regardless of the interpretations made through history, it only means one single thing- that is

Stop talking, Pay Attention and listen.

Here is a fun fact, just to make this interaction a little educative and interesting as well:

The frontal lobe of a human brain that is the largest and the most important part of the brain mainly used for decision making and planning works and enhances its function simply by paying attention and listening.

It is would be also true to say that Listening can do wonders in your daily life: Because it helps to

• Resolve Conflicts.
• Improves your problem-solving ability.
• Strengthens the bond amongst each other.
• Acts as a stepping stone towards success.
• Inspire people.
• Helps in building trust.

L for Listening.

Why Listening is important for any organisation to work and function efficiently:

For any organization to flourish and prosper or for any great leader to reach greater heights it is always very essential for them to hear the team out. Because only through this process will the leader be able to plan and make the best decisions on behalf of the entire team to succeed.

And for that purpose:

Communication is one of the most important aspects of listening: Here’s why,

Because until and unless a particular message is conveyed from one person to another, the complete result can be achieved, and that is why we have to pay attention and listen to one another.

Great leaders understand this quite well and that is why they try to follow the 2:1 ratio i.e. two ears to listen and one mouth to speak theory, hence the importance is to be given to the two ears for listening understanding and acting instead of one mouth to speak.

What has to be done to become a great leader in life?

1. Pay attention- To be a great and powerful leader it is very crucial and important to pay attention be it to your team, your customers, your peers, your clients and sometimes even your competitors, because just like in school how children listen to their teachers and learn, listening again is understanding which takes you to learning things automatically.Listening also gives you a chance to understand a situation better and then make the best possible decisions.

1. Stop Pretending.

 Another factor that needs to be understood is pretending. Always remember that pretending takes you nowhere, therefore it is quite important to admit the fact that if you didn’t understand a particular thing, it is ok to say that you didn’t, instead of simply pretending that you did and messing it up for both the parties.

• Be open to learning new things every single day.

There is nothing to be ashamed of to try and ask and learn new things, be it from people younger than you, your subordinates or even your team, because this approach will only take you forward in life and help you to earn respect in the eyes of the person whom you asked for assistance without feeling proud or ashamed.

For this always be prepared to become a pupil before you become a teacher.

• Lookout for new and innovative ideas.

Even ideas whilst working as a team leader from the team members should be taken into consideration without neglecting them; this can only be done if you open up your hearts and ears to listening to what the team has to deliver.

Try and learn from your cadres who are way below your level, because sometimes those might be the ideas that take you and your organization to much higher heights.

Always make sure that you deliver the right message and ideas to your team or group, for which you need to make sure that you have listened carefully to your cadres and summed up all the points before you deliver a descriptive speech.

Now you might be familiar with this pattern as it tends to happen with people all over the planet.

“We human beings never listen and even if we listen, we tend to hear only what we wish to hear”.

(It’s more like we have a small voice in our mind that stops us from listening completely and makes us speak rather than listen).

This happens only because healthy listening doesn’t take place, and

Why doesn’t healthy listening take place?

Let me explain so as to why this tends to keep happening.

1. You keep complaining always and that tends people to turn away from you.
2. You talk and talk and talk, which again makes the listener get bored easily.
3. You never let others complete and keep interrupting.
4. You don’t know when to end a conversation.
5. You talk to prove others wrong.
6. What you say isn’t clear to others.

To get over this, what we need to do is 

• Talk with respect; this will help you get their full attention.
• Provide new, interesting and worthy information.
• Make the speech in such a way that the team or cadres feel that you care for their well-being as well.
• Talk with uttermost clarity and carefully explain to the team about the added advantages that will help them both individually and as a team.
• Try to relate, so that they will feel more comfortable and peaceful to listen to what you say.
• Try and bond with the team, give the team a chance to connect to you as well.

Always Remember:

Leadership skills don’t include giving orders alone, instead, it is very essential to try and understand the hardships or the requirements of the team, for which you need to hear it out from the team itself, which will then make you a great leader.

So instead of” Shouting out loud, hear them out and walk your path towards success”.

Want to know some more tips for getting better business lead?

Get connected with us, Chetan Patel World.

Chetan Patel is a business trainer in Surat, Gujarat and focuses on transforming lives.

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