Listening Like a Heat Seeking Missile
A reporter sent an email today asking how listening factors into organizational change. I immediately thought about the following quote of Dr Terry Paulson, a very intelligent contributor to a LinkedIn group I participate in.
Part of the challenge is that even visions have to change and adjust on the move. It would be easier to plan if the target would stand still, but today change is like a heat-seeking missile having to hone in on a plane doing evasive maneuvers. So movement and course-corrections are at a premium.
That’s what we mean by being a Fluent Listener.
Think of the incredible number of listening contexts a working person finds herself in per day. Let’s call her Luba. How is it even slightly possible for Luba to adjust her listening to the person, moment and message?
Each person in Luba’s audiences enters the communication process with expectations. If Luba doesn’t meet those expectations, she’s assigned a “poor listener” label. We know that being considered a “good” listener correlates highly as a predictor of leader effectiveness, promotes productive relationships with followers and influences motivation and job satisfaction (Sandy Kimmel, 2011). In other words, if an executive is not considered a good listener, it is unlikely others will follow by choice.
So how do the Luba’s of the work-world use fluent listening to affect change?
- Listen, not for how to get to the future, but for how we are in it at the time we are listening - do not dwell on the past nor worry about the future.
- Practice having a listening style and delivery that engenders engagement and trust. They are more important than the rhetoric.
- Intense listening can disarm speakers, especially ones who are passionate.
- Use storytelling to demonstrate depth of understanding and to be additive.
- And most important, be a supportive listener. Go where the speaker goes, not where you want the conversation to head—be that heat-seeking missile.
Gertrude Stein said, “A genius is someone who can talk and listen at the same time.” Yet, that’s what’s expected of us in our demanding lives.
