How to: listen better to lead better

You may think you're a good listener. Chances are you're not. Here's how to fix it.

Stop me if any of this sounds familiar.

You have a meeting with your line manager. They’re clearly stressed and have a million other things on their plate.

You meet in their office. They are sat behind their laptop and can’t help their eyes sliding towards the avalanche of emails cascading down the screen. Their phone vibrates too. It’s on silent as they are meeting with you, but it vibrates. And vibrates…

You’re supposed to have 30 minutes. But that gets cut to 15 as they have to get to another Teams call that just got dropped into the calendar.

You’re explaining something that’s important to you, and to the job that you do.

Do you feel listened to? Truly heard in that moment?

Of course you don’t.

Yet this is an all too familiar set-up for one-to-one meetings with managers.

There are so many things I want to say on having good quality meetings, and we’ll do that in another edition of this newsletter.

But today, I want to focus on an aspect that is often overlooked, but is critical to a high quality meeting and to your achieving your potential as an aspiring leader.

How to listen well. And why it’s such an important leadership skill.

Welcome back to Lead with Intention and welcome new followers who found me from TikTok. Every week, I share a practical piece of leadership advice, along with tips you can implement immediately in your role. All for just £5.00 a month.

(Don’t forget that if you sign up as a paid subscriber, you can enjoy a 7 day free trial to see if this is for you, before you get charged. But I hope you’ll see it’s worth your time if you are invested in your career development. There will be free posts from time to time too.)

Let’s get into it after the jump. But first, tell me. Do you consider yourself a good listener?