This article was previously published on Forbes.com on September 25, 2024.
Have you ever turned on a show and had your attention diverted by your smartphone? Or, have you joined a meeting and had an email land in your inbox? You probably thought, “I’ll just take a look. I can listen, so I won’t miss anything too important.”
We’ve all done it, and most likely, we’ve had to shamefully rewind our show or ask someone to repeat themselves on a virtual call. It’s a direct testament to the idea that people believe they’re adept listeners, but really, we often aren’t.
Despite common beliefs, effective listening is a rarity—especially in the business world. Studies reveal surprising facts about professionals’ ability to listen.
In a study of about 14,000 employees from LinkedIn and Jacob Morgan, only 8% of employees reported that their mid- and senior-level leaders practiced the skill of listening “very well.”
More alarming? According to the Ebbenhaus forgetting curve, we forget about 60% of information we’ve processed in the first 20 minutes after hearing it.
The truth is that communication is a two-way road, and one lane is rapidly deteriorating. With emails and meetings to manage, departments to run and decisions to make, attention is an increasingly valuable commodity.
The Cost of Deaf Ears
The ability to listen is one element of being a great leader. Leaders who ignore the importance of this skill face three risks:
1. Missed opportunities: Leaders with poor listening skills often miss critical information necessary for informed decision-making. This gap can lead to suboptimal strategic decisions, overlooking innovative ideas or misjudging market demands.
2. Reduced employee engagement: I’ve noticed a strong correlation between how well leaders listen and how engaged their employees are. Leaders who aren’t effective listeners may negatively impact morale, turnover and job satisfaction.
3. Erosion of trust: Trust in leadership is crucial for employee engagement and organizational success. Poor listening can severely undermine trust, as employees may feel their insights and contributions are undervalued. As a result, a disconnect can occur between employees and organizational leadership.
There’s a distinct competitive advantage available for leaders who are excellent listeners. Leaders who listen better can play with a full deck, inspire their communities and foster mutual, lasting relationships.
How to Listen Better
As an industry-leading graphic recorder and graphic facilitator, I translate ideas, discussions and presentations into visual representations and summaries in real time. I’ve trained the best of the best in the profession, and I’m often asked about the program I’ve developed to do so. The secret? It’s less about drawing and almost entirely focused on how to actively listen.
Active listening involves more than processing words; it requires interpreting and integrating information in a way that adds value. ImageThink employs the following techniques to optimize listening:
1. Give full, undivided attention: In an age of constant distractions, the act of fully focusing on the speaker—more specifically, what they say and how they say it—can significantly enhance the quality of the interaction.
2. Ask clarifying questions: Instead of making assumptions, asking questions improves understanding and prevents miscommunication.
3. Synthesize in real time: Look for connections between ideas to help yourself group and organize information in your busy mind.
4. Listen with the intent to re-tell: Approach conversations as if you will need to reiterate the information later. This mindset encourages deeper engagement with the content.
While this method is essential for graphic recording and graphic facilitation, it’s also an invaluable approach for daily leadership and management. It’s one that can immediately—and noticeably—improve your listening skills. If you want to take it up a notch, lean into the power of visualization. Using visual aids to bolster verbal communication or written notes can enhance memory and learning.
Creating a Culture That Prioritizes Listening
Building a culture that values active listening requires more than individual effort; it necessitates a systemic change led from the top.
Leaders must model the listening behaviors they wish to see throughout their organization. In turn, employees will be encouraged to communicate more openly and frequently. Thus, listening doubles as a form of conflict management.
A culture of listening contributes to a more agile and responsive organization. As such, listening should be considered—and practiced—in daily interactions, cross-departmental collaborations and organization-wide initiatives.
At my company and our clients’ companies, we demonstrate great listening in the work we provide. Visualization is an excellent, tangible way to show contributors that their voices are being heard and that what they are saying matters.
As the saying goes, “If you can’t explain it to a 6-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.” My spin on that is that if you can’t show it, diagram it or draw it out, you weren’t listening.
Listening: A Skill That Can Set You Apart
The ability to listen effectively is not just an ancillary skill—I believe it’s fundamental to successful leadership and business strategy. As leaders aim to steer their companies toward future successes, a commitment to growing their listening skills is a strategic move that can lead to high returns.
Begin by assessing your own listening skills and consider making an investment in the skill. It could be the key to greater levels of performance and engagement across your organization.
