Truly Listen to Your Employees
How much would you invest to get a return of increased productivity and improved employee engagement? Just making one change at no cost pays huge dividends, at least according to Harvard Business Review’s meta research of 117 studies on workplace listening. “Ample research has shown that when people believe that their managers and senior leaders are truly listening to their ideas and concerns, work relationships grow stronger, engagement rises, and performance improves.” https://hbr.org/2025/05/are-you-really-a-good-listener?deliveryName=NL_BestOfTheIssue_20250521
The Research Findings
The research also shows that most managers and leaders are not good listeners and cites five key reasons:
1.Haste – This can be conveyed by looking at your watch or walking to the door.
2.Defensiveness – This often appears when conveying a difficult or unpopular decision.
3.Invisibility – This might be appearing or actually being indifferent to what your employees are trying to tell you.
4.Exhaustion – Physical and/or emotional exhaustion makes focus and empathy harder.0
5.Inaction – Employees provide feedback, either orally or through surveys, but fail to see any action taken as a result.
I’ll add a few more reasons that I’ve seen in managers and leaders who are poor listeners.
6.Ego and self-importance – These are often the hallmarks of people who believe that they really are always the smartest one in the room.
7.Jumping into Problem-solving mode – This involves your mind in identifying solutions regardless of why the person is telling you something.
Do any of these resonate with you? Several did with me, and I am honestly embarrassed by them. Good listening skills are taught throughout our education and leadership development courses. But practicing them in real-time can be challenging.
Listening and Excellence
The Baldrige Excellence Framework identifies the importance of listening as a major component of leadership – not only with employees but with customers and stakeholders, too. There’s a phrase about having frank, two-way communication, further underscoring that leaders should receive as well as transmit.
Asking Questions Is More Powerful than Just Telling
For information to sink in, research shows that the audience has to hear it about seven times. That is a lot. Consider the power of asking employees questions. The first time you ask, the employee may or may not know the answer. The second time you ask the employee the same question, the sharp ones know the answer, and the others figure out they had better get the answer. By the third time you ask, most know the answer. The formula of telling seven times and asking three time shows that questions lead to more effective two-way communication.
Improving Your Listening Skills
Having a peer coach – I had this kind of relationship with a colleague when we were on the same leadership team. We had very discreet signals for each other to alert us when some of our bad habits surfaced.
Being candidate with subordinates and others – Invite them to tell you when you appear distracted or unable to focus on what they are saying.
Taking notes to capture others’ ideas and input – Repeating back to the person to ensure that their message was correctly received.
Are You Ready to Invest Yourself in Increased Productivity and Improved Employee Engagement?
There’s no time like the present!
