Leadership & Storytelling Part 7 of Many...

7. Stop and Listen

The importance of this simple and powerful technique cannot be stressed enough. Leaders must learn how to listen on many different levels. Hearing others’ words is only one facet of listening. Leaders must also discover techniques and practices for tuning into the actions of people around them and unscrambling their observations into insightful reflective patterns that guide their interactions with others. Self-reflection is another crucial form of listening that gets overlooked. Leaders with the capacity to retreat into the stillness of their heart, mind, and gut in the frenzy of change and chaos around them can act from a place of fuller knowledge than can leaders who work principally from their heads.


Practice

• Set aside ten minutes a day to rewind the day and review your interactions with others. Consider how any of your interactions with others might have altered your mental model of them.

• Look for any interactions that might have resulted in misperceptions. Determine the best way to follow up and alleviate the potentially negative impacts of these interactions.