Welcome to the Monday Mojo email - now sending on a Sunday evening to help you get ready for the week ahead. I actually love Sunday evenings - that feeling of a blank slate and a fresh week to conquer. And if you know me in real life, you’ll know the idea of a to-do list thrills me to my core! So I often spend a quiet 30 minutes on a Sunday afternoon reflecting on what I want out of the week and what my priorities are. Plus, crucially, how I’ll measure success.
But that’s a different topic for another day. Today, I want to talk about listening.
Are you a good listener?
Really?
It’s a fact that most people think they are good listeners, but the amount of miscommunication and misunderstanding in the workplace leads me to believe we can’t all possibly be great listeners. It’s like that great line from my favourite film “When Harry Met Sally” said by Carrie Fisher (RIP) during the infamous wagon wheel coffee table debate:
“Everybody thinks they have good taste and a sense of humour but they couldn’t possibly all have good taste.”
Sub in “taste” or “humour” for “listening” and that’s about right.
After all, how many times have you told someone, “go ahead, I’m listening”, whilst glued to your phone or computer screen. I used to have a manager that always carried on typing while I was talking, a clear sign that they weren’t actually listening to a word I said. And worse, that they didn’t value what I had to say over the email they were frantically typing. Wow, they were such a frantic typist…
You don’t want people to feel that way when they’re talking to you. And remember, good leadership is all about how people feel when they are on the receiving end of you.
So this week, this is what I want you to do...