LISTENING SKILLS

Listening skills are a key to effectiveness in almost every dimension of leadership behaviour: decision-making, team facilitation, conflict management, and relationship-building. Although relevant to leaders at all levels, listening skills gain added importance at higher echelons of organizations. In senior positions, it is vital to evaluate large volumes of information before making an informed decision. Refining listening skills is one way to ensure that leaders are considering all perspectives before reaching a decision.

We teach listening skills that help identify a speaker's core concerns, what goals they want to achieve, and what action steps can be taken to solve the problem. We also discuss the listening techniques that will ensure the speaker feels heard, respected, and validated.

Over the past two decades, many of the leaders who have completed this program have reported that once they learned these skills, they first notice a change at home with their partner and families, and later, with work colleagues and neighbours. As a result, and because listening skills are sometimes difficult to learn, we encourage leaders to use their spouse or significant other as their learning partner in the program.