ACTIVE LISTENING IN BUSINESS LEADS TO RESULTS

What do you value in a company? Why are you loyal to your favorite companies?

A common feature of successful businesses is active listening. They listen to their clients, and their people listen to each other. When a team communicates well and practices active listening in business, it builds strong relationships. Operations run smoother and profits grow.

What Does Active Listening at Work Look Like?

Active listening at work means you listen to understand before you answer. You hear the words. You also hear the worry under them. Then you show the other person you got it.

Most of us listen to reply. We wait for a gap and drop in our own point. The other person feels that right away, and they stop telling you the real problem.

Four habits show active listening in a real meeting:

• Ask, then wait. Ask a what or how question. Count to five in your head before you fill the silence. The useful answer often comes after the pause.
• Play it back in their words. Try: "So the risk you see is the June date, and the budget is fine?" If you got it wrong, they correct you, and now you both know.
• Ask "what else?" before you answer. The second concern is often the one that matters.
• Close the loop. A week later, tell people what you did with what they said. When nothing happens, people stop speaking up.

Every one of those habits starts with a question. You can't listen to an answer you never asked for. So we treat listening and asking as one skill in our questioning skills experience for leaders and sellers. The kind of question matters too. This guide to asking the right questions as a leader shows which questions open a room and which ones shut it down.

ACTIVE LISTENING COMES FROM OPENNESS TO CHANGE

To listen well, people need to be open to new views and to change. It means listening to the person, as well as the words. Listening is an active, deliberate act. You listen to get to know someone better and to show you care. Hearing is just your ears picking up sound.

Many business leaders are happy with what their company has achieved. They resist change because they don't want to risk a good thing. They may miss great ideas because they put their team's ideas, concerns and views on mute. Closing off communication hurts the whole organization. Cooperation drops, and so does productivity.

DEALING WITH RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

Dealing with resistance to change from the top down can help your organization see the value of each person's view.

The A-to-Z exercise in Learn2's Handle Resistance Naturally experience helps a team spot the behaviors that help its culture and the ones that hurt it. It also helps participants bring the values of their business into their own roles.

LEARNINGS FROM HANDLE RESISTANCE NATURALLY

Participants work through five things in this exercise:

1. How to be open to change
2. How to identify the needs of clients and coworkers
3. How to engage clients and coworkers
4. How to set business goals the team can reach
5. How to build on strengths instead of arguing about weaknesses

After this exercise, people start to hear what they used to miss. If your team turns what it found into lists, the manager and team can use them as job aids later. The lists keep everyone on track and point to the changes that lead to results.

A team of ten or a whole organization can use these tools to work through resistance to change.

Active Listening at Work: Common Questions

What are examples of active listening at work?

Asking a what or how question and then waiting for the full answer. Repeating the other person's point back in their own words. Asking what else is on their mind before you respond. Taking notes in a one-on-one and following up on them a week later. Each one shows the speaker you heard them and want to hear more.

Why is active listening important in the workplace?

People tell you more when they feel heard. That means you hear about problems early, while they are still cheap to fix. Teams that listen to each other spend less time defending positions and more time on solutions. Clients notice the same thing, and they come back.

How can managers practice active listening with their team?

Pick one meeting a week. In that meeting, ask more than you tell, and play back each concern before you respond to it. At the end, ask the team what felt different. Practice on a real problem with real stakes sticks longer than a role play about a made-up one.

PROMOTE ACTIVE LISTENING AND ENGAGEMENT IN YOUR BUSINESS

When you listen to your team and stay open to change, you build a place where people cooperate. That saves money and moves the business forward.

Here is the irony. A listening workshop with an expert and a slide deck is the hour of the year nobody listens to. People nod, then go back to their desks and wait for their turn to talk. Listening grows when a team practices it on the problems it already has, with something real at stake. Participants drive the experience. We design the conditions. See how participant-driven works. Not sure which experience fits your team? Answer three questions and we will point you to the right one.

Read next: meaningful questions to ask your team instead of "how are you?"