We’re Not Great Listeners; Lead With Your Brain; Truth In The Trenches

We’ve spent a lot of time the past two weeks writing about the right way to give employees feedback so it is positive and productive. If you didn’t catch those emails, go back through your inbox. There was some great advice.

But we didn’t emphasize enough one of the most important things – listening.

The late Steve Jobs may have said it best: “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

We’re better managers when we listen. I mean really listening to our employees. If you listen enough, they’ll tell you everything you really need to know to have a successful company.

But I’m afraid we don’t do it very well.

In a recent ResourcefulManager survey of 2,107 executives and managers, only 26.5% said their bosses were great listeners.

That’s not a great sign. If your boss isn’t listening to you, there’s a good chance you’re not listening very well to your people either.

The good news, it’s never too late to start doing it.

In case you missed it …

Here’s what else the ResourcefulManager team has been reading this week:

8 TIPS FOR DEALING WITH A KNOW-IT-ALL COWORKER

Do you have a coworker who thinks he knows everything? Unfortunately, most of us know at least one such know-it-all — and they’re not always the easiest to work with. Here are eight tips for dealing with them.

LEAD WITH YOUR BRAIN: HERE’S HOW

Brain science suggests the most effective actions leaders can take to engage employees and increase their professional development is to reduce perceived threats and help them come to insights and conclusions on their own.

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES FROM THE TRENCHES OF LEADERSHIP

It’s when things aren’t going well that leaders find themselves in the trenches of leadership. And it’s the ability to tell the truth from that place that sets the great leaders apart.

9 WAYS TO LEAD BY EXAMPLE

Despite being perhaps the greatest way to guide a team, leading by example can also be the most difficult. Here are 9 simple ways to grow your abilities as a leader.

7 SIGNS YOU ARE THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE TO YOUR TEAM’S SUCCESS

As hard as it may be to accept, it’s quite likely that managers – people like us – are the major roadblock to our team’s success more often than we want to know or admit. Here are 7 signs to watch for.

THE FEEDBACK FRAMEWORK GETS EMPLOYEES TO ACTUALLY LISTEN

Our latest Blueprint, The Feedback Framework, is out. It’s lays out a complete approach to doing employee feedback. Get your copy now.

Keep an eye out for …

You don’t want to miss Monday’s blog post: Stop Procrastinating – 9 Ways To Get Your Butt In Gear. (Yes, I’m guilty of this, too.)

Yours in success,

John Walston
ResourcefulManager-in-Chief