I’m not an expert in this area and continue to be on a journey of growth to best interact, listen and lead people. For me, ‘active’ listening is participating and engaging while listening. That could mean repeating what someone told you to confirm understanding, nodding, asking questions for understanding, eye contact and staying focused on the person and what they are saying. Here are 5 benefits that come to mind for active listening for effective leadership:

1. The other person feels heard - Anyone who has their turn to talk deserves to be heard without being interrupted or spoken over. As a leader, you want the insights from your team.
2. You connect better - If you are paying attention and participating, you find ways to better connect with the person - common ground. Good leaders connect so they can take people to higher ground.
3. You can position yourself to help if needed - Active listening creates the opportunity to learn about problems and if asked, you can help. To lead people, you need to understand their challenges and be available to help them with options to overcome them.
4. You give someone a safe place - Sometimes people just need to talk. Back to feeling heard, active listening creates a place to let words flow and know they are received. Doing so, makes you available to your team.
5. You can lead - It is a privilege to be a trusted ear and in doing so, you might be able to lead that person by serving or helping them. It doesn’t mean taking over the conversation but having the privilege to serve or work together to accomplish goals. As John C. Maxwell says, leadership is influence, nothing more or nothing less. If leadership is influence, they only way to gain it is by ‘active’ listening.

Those are my initial thoughts on the benefits of active listening for improved leadership. I’m sure I’ve missed some, and eager to continue to grow in this area to improve my leadership and connectivity to people.

John C. Maxwell says, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” I believe that is true and is my favorite leadership quote. You can see this in politics, family, business, and all areas of life. Leadership has always been interesting to me and in today’s post I share some thoughts about underrated qualities that are important to develop as a leader.

1. Serving - I believe in servant leadership. The style of leadership that I’ve adopted is to serve others and help them grow and achieve more. In doing so, the team achieves more.
2. Exampleship - How we carry ourselves as leaders doesn’t go unnoticed. I think of this quality related to parenting. Kids will do what they see more so than what they hear. Lead by your example.
3. Listening - Most leaders would agree with the importance of listening skills. People need to have a voice, and their ideas, concerns and overall feedback need to be heard. The leader brings the team together (culture), establishes the vision or destination and supports the work efforts, but it’s all the individual contributors playing each role to the best of their ability that make the difference. The leader needs to listen and understand what’s going taking place on the field and in the trenches of the work.
4. Discipline to grow - How can you add value to people if you’re not growing in value yourself? Growth takes discipline because it often involves sacrificing what we want to do for work we need to do. Growth is a work habit.
5. Rest - This is probably the most underrated in my opinion is getting adequate rest. Without rest no one can perform to their highest ability. If leaders are to perform, they need sleep and time to restore themselves. My goal is to show up every day with optimal performance in my work and for the people I work with. As a side note, I’ve recently prioritized my sleep and rest more and it’s made a difference in my mood and energy throughout the day.

Leadership isn’t easy, but it’s worth it because of the responsibility and impact we have on helping people succeed.