In the dynamic realm of leadership, where decisions and directives shape organizational futures, the ability to listen—truly listen—is a skill that sets exceptional leaders apart. Engaged listening is more than just hearing or repeating words; it’s an active, conscious effort to understand and empathize. This nuanced form of listening is an invaluable asset, fostering trust, collaboration, and innovation. In a world where the pace of change is relentless, flexing the listening muscle is never obsolete.

The Benefits of Engaged Listening in Leadership

Engaged listening offers profound benefits to leaders and their teams. By fostering an environment where every voice is valued, leaders can cultivate a culture of trust and mutual respect. Neuroscientific research underscores the importance of this skill. Studies indicate that active listening engages multiple areas of the brain, enhancing emotional regulation and empathy. When leaders listen attentively, they activate the brain’s mirror neuron system, which helps in understanding others’ emotions and intentions, creating stronger interpersonal connections.

Engaged listening also enhances decision-making. By thoroughly understanding diverse perspectives, leaders can make more informed, balanced decisions. This inclusivity leads to higher employee engagement and retention, as team members feel valued and heard. Furthermore, engaged listening mitigates conflicts, as it promotes open communication and understanding, reducing misunderstandings and fostering a collaborative atmosphere.

Strategies for Improvement

1. Cultivate Focus: Eliminate distractions during conversations. This means silencing electronic devices and maintaining eye contact. Show genuine interest through body language, nodding, and verbal affirmations.
2. Develop Self-Awareness: Recognize your biases and preconceptions. Approach conversations with an open mind, ready to understand rather than judge. This self-awareness can prevent premature conclusions and foster more meaningful interactions.
3. Foster Curiosity: Ask open-ended questions that encourage deeper dialogue. Show genuine curiosity about others’ viewpoints. This not only demonstrates respect but also uncovers valuable insights that might otherwise be missed.
4. Practice Reflective Listening: Paraphrase and summarize what the other person has said. This confirms your understanding and shows the speaker that you are fully engaged. Reflective listening can also clarify points and ensure mutual understanding.
5. Empower Others: Create a safe space for team members to express their thoughts without fear of interruption or judgment. Encourage quieter team members to share their ideas, fostering a more inclusive environment.

Real-World Examples

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft: When Satya Nadella became CEO, he emphasized a culture of empathy and listening. His approach transformed Microsoft’s internal culture, promoting collaboration and innovation. Nadella’s engaged listening style has been credited with breaking down silos within the company, leading to a more cohesive and innovative organization.

Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors: Mary Barra is renowned for her leadership style that emphasizes listening and collaboration. When she became CEO, she faced the monumental task of addressing GM’s ignition switch crisis. Instead of dictating solutions, Barra listened to her team, encouraging open communication and transparency. She held town hall meetings and one-on-one sessions to understand employees’ perspectives and concerns. This approach not only helped resolve the crisis but also fostered a culture of trust and accountability within the company. Barra’s commitment to engaged listening has been instrumental in driving GM’s innovation and cultural transformation, making her a respected leader in the automotive industry.

How to Practice Engaged Listening Daily

1. Schedule “Listening Hours”: Dedicate specific times for one-on-one meetings where you solely focus on listening to team members’ concerns and ideas.
2. Start Meetings with a Listening Exercise: Begin meetings by inviting team members to share their thoughts on the agenda topics without interruption. This sets a tone of mutual respect and openness.
3. Implement “Listen-First” Policies: Encourage a culture where listening precedes any decision-making. This ensures all voices are heard and considered.
4. Start a conversation with the question: “How can I help?” then listen to understand how you can be helpful.

Resources

Articles:

• “The Neuroscience of Trust” by Paul J. Zak – Harvard Business Review
• “The Power of Active Listening in Leadership” by Management Training Institute
• “The 5 Levels of Listening as a Leadership Tool” by Brier Cook – Fellow.app

Books:

1. “Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone” by Mark Goulston This book offers practical advice on how to listen effectively and communicate with impact, crucial for leaders looking to improve their interpersonal skills in a high-stakes environment.
2. “Conversational Intelligence: How Great Leaders Build Trust & Get Extraordinary Results” by Judith E. Glaser This book explores how to harness the power of conversation to build trust and foster a collaborative atmosphere, essential for leaders aiming to create a more inclusive and open communication culture.
3. “The Trusted Advisor” by David H. Maister, Charles H. Green, and Robert M. Galford Focusing on building trust through effective listening and communication, this book is a valuable resource for leaders who want to strengthen relationships and enhance their influence.
4. “Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High” by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler This book provides strategies for navigating difficult conversations with confidence and skill, helping leaders to manage high-stakes interactions more effectively.

A Note from the Author

Engaged listening is not a passive activity but an active, intentional practice that can transform leadership effectiveness. By developing this skill, you can foster a more collaborative, innovative, and empathetic organizational culture. In your day-to-day interactions, this means making a conscious effort to be present, understand, and respond thoughtfully. As a leader, practicing engaged listening not only enhances individual relationships but also strengthens the fabric of your entire organization.

I invite you to share your thoughts, ask questions, or provide your perspective on the importance of engaged listening in leadership. Your insights can enrich the conversation and help others learn from your experiences. If you found this article helpful, consider sharing it with colleagues or friends who could benefit from understanding the power of engaged listening. Let’s continue to build a community where every voice is valued and every leader is an exceptional listener.

Warmly, Maria Wade

Feedback is a powerful tool for growth, yet it’s often approached with hesitation and uncertainty. This month, I’d like to delve into the intricacies of feedback, shedding light on its dual nature – both giving and receiving. But first, let me share a conversation that highlights the challenges many leaders face:

Coach: What accountability system do you use with your team?

Leader: Honestly, I'm not sure it's an effective one. 
I hate yelling at people.

This response isn’t unusual. Many leaders grapple with the challenge of seeking accountability and delivering feedback. Feedback has long been associated with confrontation, and the mere idea of it makes most people uneasy. Today, let’s tackle this misconception head-on and delve deeper into the art and science of feedback.

Feedback: A Conversation, Not a Confrontation

It’s a shared belief: every time we offer feedback, we risk jeopardizing our relationships. But should feedback always be linked to potential conflict? My perspective is no. It’s essential to distinguish between performance-centric discussions and conversations that might harm relationships. Feedback, when done correctly, can be a constructive tool, nurturing growth and promoting understanding.

Enter the SBI Feedback Method

The Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI) approach to feedback has been a game-changer for many, including myself. Why? Because it structures feedback in a way that is clear, factual, and devoid of emotional baggage.

• Situation: Specifies when and where a particular behavior occurred.
• Behavior: Describes the observable action in question.
• Impact: Explains how the behavior had a real or potential effect, be it on individuals, team dynamics, or even broader business results.

By adhering to this method, we steer clear of assumptions, avoid casting aspersions on intentions, and refrain from speculating about motivations. Instead, the focus remains solely on observable behaviors and their outcomes.

Receiving Feedback through the SBI Lens

While the SBI approach is invaluable when giving feedback, it’s equally transformative when on the receiving end. Let’s explore this through a real-life dialogue:

Coach: What continues to be an area of development in interpersonal 
communication for Mike?

Manager: Mike's communication has improved significantly during the 
last few months. However, he can still come off as abrasive, 
especially when he's convinced he's right.

Coach: Can you recall the most recent occasion when you observed 
this type of communication?

Manager: It's hard to pinpoint. Perhaps a few months ago...

Coach: Are we considering behavior from a period outside our 
current focus?

Manager: Yes, probably...

This interaction underscores a common challenge: feedback that lacks specificity. In such cases, it’s crucial to seek clarity. Facts anchor feedback, making it actionable and relevant. Without clear context (Event, Place, Behavior), and understanding the Real or Potential Impact, feedback can become a vague cloud of assumptions.

Feedback, whether giving or receiving, need not be a dreaded process. By employing the SBI approach and rooting our observations in facts, we can make feedback an enriching experience, fostering growth and fostering genuine understanding.

For those keen on delving deeper, numerous studies and research pieces elaborate on the science and effectiveness behind the SBI method. But for now, let this serve as an introduction to a tool that might just redefine your approach to feedback.

Stay tuned for more insights and strategies to navigate the intricate realm of leadership and personal growth. Feedback is an art, and like all arts, it requires practice, understanding, and the right tools.

Hello, emerging luminaries and seasoned leaders alike! Today, we’re redefining success in leadership by unveiling an essential element often overlooked in the climb to the top: Your Personal Leadership Brand.

You might assume that crafting a leadership brand is an exercise best suited to the early stages of a career. However, the reality can be quite different. As an emerging leader, you’re often engrossed in scaling the heights of your career ladder, with little time to pause and ponder the significance of your leadership image and the perception you’re building among peers and subordinates. And as you ascend to senior executive or C-suite positions, the need for a well-defined, impactful leadership brand becomes even more pressing.

Your Leadership Brand is not just a catchy phrase or a superficial label. It’s an embodiment of your uniqueness as a leader, the distinctive value you provide, and the promise you make to your audience, whether that’s your team, your organization, or the wider industry. It has the power to transform your leadership trajectory and create a profound impact that resonates far beyond your immediate role.

In this post, I’ll walk you through simple yet powerful exercises designed to help you articulate and shape a leadership brand that truly matters – one that reflects your unique leadership journey and amplifies your influence. It’s a brand that not only communicates who you are as a leader but also the leader you aspire to be.

Finding Your Unique Leadership Value

Embarking on the path to personal brand creation is a journey inward. It’s about understanding who you are as a leader and the unique value you bring to the table. Start with these guiding questions:

• Who are my key stakeholders and what are their expectations?
• What unique value do I offer as a leader?
• What kind of impact do I aspire to make with my leadership?
• What do I want to be known for?
• What traits should a leader in my current or desired role exhibit?
• How do I describe my leadership identity?

Also pose these questions to your stakeholders and welcome their feedback. Their perspectives often reveal aspects of your leadership that you might not see yourself. This journey of self-discovery equips you to create your Leadership Brand Statement:

“I want to be known for being __________ so that I can ________.”

Although simple, this statement is transformative. It guides you towards consistent, authentic leadership that resonates with those around you.

Understanding Your Leadership Brand: Internal and External Perspectives

Your leadership brand has two equally important dimensions: an internal and an external one.

The internal brand is nurtured within your organization and is closely tied to your company’s values and the relationships you nurture within it. It’s expressed through your actions, your decision-making style, problem-solving approach, and the way you inspire and support your team.

The external brand is your image in the broader professional world, including clients, potential employers, or industry peers. It’s about maintaining authenticity while tailoring your image to resonate with different audiences. This often involves online interactions, public speaking, thought leadership articles, or networking events.

Navigating the Challenges

As with any personal and professional endeavor, you’ll face challenges in building your leadership brand. Here are some common ones, along with strategies to overcome them:

• Inconsistency between perceived and desired brand: There might be a gap between how you perceive your brand and how others do. Regular feedback and self-reflection can help bridge this gap.
• Difficulty maintaining authenticity: Don’t try to construct a brand that doesn’t align with your true self. Authenticity is crucial in leadership; people trust leaders who are genuine.
• Resistance to change: You might face resistance, especially if your brand challenges the status quo. Stay resilient, uphold your values, and lead by example.

A Continuous Journey: Your Evolving Leadership Brand

Remember, your leadership brand isn’t static; it evolves with you. Recognizing when and how to adapt your brand is a crucial leadership skill. But how do you identify the need for change? How can you implement these changes effectively?

Embrace the challenges this journey will inevitably bring. You might need to reassess your self-image, take risks, or step outside your comfort zone. But remember, every experience, every stumble, and every victory shapes your evolution as a successful leader.

So, dear leaders, it’s time to redefine your leadership success by crafting your leadership brand. Reflect, interact, learn, grow, and most importantly, enjoy the process (Download a one-page Guide to Building a Personal Leadership Brand).

Your brand is a testament to your unique leadership journey, let it shine authentically!

These questions pave the way for deeper discussions and insights. As a leadership coach, I’m here to facilitate these conversations. Let’s dive into these topics together, explore your unique leadership journey, and work on a brand that truly matters. Contact me for a one-on-one discussion where we can unpack your leadership evolution and build a brand that resonates with your continuous growth.

Leave your comments, ask questions!

Signing off now, wishing you transformative experiences on your journey to a resonant leadership brand.

I read. I’m a reader.

My favorites are fiction books. The second place in my reading priorities is for non-fiction books, including memoirs. Less enjoyable, but sometimes quite exciting, are white papers and articles in peer-reviewed journals. I almost never read magazines and newspapers. For some reason, I just don’t appreciate the form and style.

I remember that it wasn’t always like this. I mostly read fiction during my school years but put it away when I entered university. I studied law, and reading the literature related to my major replaced all other types of written work. After I completed my master’s degree in law, fiction reappeared in my life but rarely and sporadically. I worked, studied law as part of a doctoral program, and later pursued degrees in finance and business administration. To be honest, I couldn’t afford the luxury of reading fiction literature. I was so focused on my professional development, leaving little time to do anything else. As my career rapidly developed, I practically never had time for entertaining reading.

Everything changed when I started learning English seriously in 2016 after a year of living in the United States. I needed to support my language studies by reading different types of literature and I realized how much I had missed reading. I suddenly found myself with a great reason to read and a lack of strong language skills to enjoy the process  Habitually, I plunged into non-fiction sources thinking of multiple tests, exams, and certifications I was going through reclaiming my qualifications and relaunching my career. I read eighteen books in 2017, twenty-one in 2018, thirty-one in 2019, forty-seven in 2020 and slowed down a little bit in 2021 (just nineteen books) saturated with reading of any kind.

Now I’m reading not because I need to read but because I want to do it. I often ask for recommendations but seldom write reviews. I told you I’m a reader, not a writer 

Today, though, I want to share with you very short reviews on four of the books I have read since the beginning of the year.

The Citadel by A.J. Cronin. Loving this period in English literature. I’m captivated with the elegance and beauty of the language. I’m thrilling with the realization that I admire the author’s value system. The story of the young doctor resonates with my experience enormously. Yes, you’re right. I’m not young. But I re-established my career just six years ago. I still remember all the choices I have made since then, and not all of them perfect. In one of my blog posts on fear, I wrote that that the point is not to be unafraid, it’s about choices we make when we’re afraid. The situation with establishing career or business is not about being afraid – though sometimes you may be scared – it’s about choices you make pursuing your dream and aspiration.

When you’re investing your time, effort, money in the work you love very much, you may become impatient. You may be eager to see a return on investment sooner not later. And this is the question what you’re ready to do to achieve your goals in the shortest timeframe. Do you want to be recognized, awarded, valued? Quite likely. What are you willing to do to get it? Everything that is required?

The Citadel captivated my attention, I spent every spare minute reading it. I cried while finishing the book. I don’t remember when I cried with the same kind of vibes, the same kind of emotions. The tears I shed were tears of joy.

Reading the book, I contemplated on the idea that nothing has really changed in over a century. There are the same challenges, moral dilemmas, and tough decisions to make. It may look scary or desperate, but it’s not. It means that the one and only thing to change is you. You’re not changing the world; you’re changing yourself, growing your own complexity to respond the challenges of the rapidly non-changing world.

Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad. Recently, I started enjoying books that educate me on different topics through storytelling. I don’t necessarily want to experience any of the major events described in these books, but I do want to learn about them. I often repeat to my kids that that our life is not long enough to accommodate all possible scenarios, but we can read about many of them.

This book, Between Two Kingdoms, is a memoir. I love memoirs. I play with them in my mind figuring out alternatives and other possibilities. What I take in most is the feelings and emotions of characters. I believe that this is the main reason of my affection for memoirs.

Suleika Jaouad did a beautiful job presenting the emotional world of people who are fighting cancer and their caregivers. I’m so grateful to her for shedding some light on what people think, feel, being afraid of or tired of. Suleika led me through a whole story of her fight with cancer. Honest and keen story is an example of the author’s inner growth that I appreciate very much. I wish the author the best and am praying for the millions of people who are fighting a cancer.

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult. One more book that I see as educational and thought- provoking. I had never cared about my race before I moved to the USA in 2015. The color of my skin was completely natural and not requiring any thoughts or attention. I had never realized all the privileges attached to this color of skin. I took a lot of things for granted. Early in my exploration of race related topics, I learned that we’re responsible for our own education on race and racism. I appreciate great sources on the topic. I participate in conversations about racism, biases, and prejudice and am trying to tame that uneasy feeling of recognizing unconscious biases, ignoring privileges, and tolerating polarized talks on racism.

I’m grateful to Jodi Picoult for bringing my attention to the fact that racism is not always aggressive or cruel, that it may be just an ignorance without bad intention, that this is our human responsibility to educate ourselves, to widen our perspectives, to learn to understand each other regardless of the color of our skins, to share our love (not hate), and as always, to have a brave and candid conversations. Don’t assume, ask! Don’t require others to make assumptions, share! Beautiful story about love that saves the world.

The Adventure of Sally by P.G. Wodehouse. As I mentioned earlier, there is something special in the writing of this period. I opened this review with A.J. Cronin’s book featuring events from 1924 and want to close it with P.G. Wodehouse’s focused on 1922. This book is a pure joy. The author’s sense of humor and ethical standards are what kept me captivated. Lightness and sophistication… Humor in very serious matters… True mastery in putting words together… Such a pleasure for me as a reader and a writer (I’m writing this review, so I’m a writer, am I not?).

Don’t expect too much. It’s simply a witty romantic comedy, but it’s definitely worth your time if you like to chill out with a good book. And one more reminder that nothing is new in this world:

“It’s just my luck,” he said gloomily. “it’s the kind of thing that couldn’t happen to anyone but me. Damned fools! Where’s the sense in shutting the theatres, even if there is influenza about? They let people jam against one another all day in the stores. If that doesn’t hurt them why should it hurt them to go the theatres? Besides, it’s all infernal nonsense about this thing. I don’t believe there is such a thing as Spanish influenza. People get colds in their heads and think they’re dying. It’s all a fake scare.”

It reminds something from our recent experience, doesn’t it? 

I hope that you will find this review at least not boring, and at most useful. Have you read any of these? What did you think? I also invite you to please share with me a word about books that you found interesting and thought-provoking. I always appreciate book recommendations.

Until next time: Happy Reading!