One expert points out that leaders touch your heart before they ask for your hand. That’s the law of connection. Before a leader can touch a person’s heart, he or she has to know what’s in it. And you learn that by listening. A reluctance to listen is too common among poor leaders. Over half of all management problems are caused by faulty, ineffective communication. And the vast majority of communication problems stem from poor listening. Many voices are clamouring for our attention. As you think about how to listen, keep in mind that you have two reasons for listening: a) to connect with people, and b) to learn about them. Thst includes the people we view as our competitors. Sam Markewich quipped, ‘If you don’t agree with me, it means you haven’t been listening.’ Although he was joking, the sad truth is that when we view another person only as competition, we end up focusing attention on building our own case or championing our own objectives, and forget that we can learn from the other person. Now, we don’t necessarily want to base our actions on what another person is doing, but we should still listen and learn how to improve ourselves. It’s a costly mistake to get so busy doing our own thing, or trying to make things happen, that we stop paying attention to what’s going on around us. Every day we live and every experience we have, both negative and positive, can teach us valuable lessons. But first we must listen!
