Listening is a core communication skill. It’s fundamental for effective leadership.

The importance of listening in leadership is crucial for team performance.

A leader who is authoritarian and judgmental may cause their employees to be afraid of them and
unwilling to communicate. This can lead to team dysfunction and poor productivity.

So why are listening skills important? Here are five other ways that listening skills make you a more
effective leader:

1. Listening increases your capacity as a leader

We can always learn from those around us, including our direct reports. Effective listening gives you
knowledge and perspectives that increase your leadership capacity.

Being open to feedback and new ideas from your team helps you learn and grow as a leader.

2. Listening shows you care

Really listening to someone shows you care about what they’re saying and empathize with their feelings.

This creates a work environment of trust. Having the trust of your employees gives you greater influence
over them.

At the same time, it makes them more motivated and committed to their work.

3. Listening helps you comprehend the situation

If you fail to pay due attention to what your employees say, you will not fully understand the situation.

Failing to comprehend the situation may lead you to give advice or recommendations that are
ineffective or don’t get to the root of the problem.

4. Listening helps you better understand your business

Listening to your employees is the best way to understand the needs of your clients and business.

This helps you plan effective strategies that are oriented to the demands of your business.

5. Listening gives you a vision of the reality on the ground

Listening gives you knowledge and insights into the day-to-day reality of your employees.

It’s essential to create an atmosphere of trust and encourage your coworkers to speak openly about
their daily challenges.

You might be surprised at how different their reality is from your perception of it.

Effective listening isn’t only going to benefit your employees by making them feel understood. It will also
benefit you as a leader and make you a better leader.

Here are five ways leadership listening impacts your role as a leader:
1. It establishes trust

Leaders who lack listening skills are more likely to be perceived as selfish by their employees, according
to Emtrain.

Conversely, listening establishes trust, and employees are more likely to feel supported by their
managers.

2. It motivates your employees

Listening to your employees makes them feel valued and understood.

This increases their levels of employee engagement and motivation, which has a positive impact on
productivity.

3. It sets a good example

Good leadership means modeling the behaviors you wish to see reflected in company culture.

By developing and using your listening skills, you will help to foster a company culture of deep listening
and empathy.

4. It drives innovation

Employees who feel their leaders listen are more likely to speak up and share their ideas and
perspectives.

Getting feedback from employees can help you grow as a leader. Leaders who are open to listening to
employee input can reap the reward of their innovative ideas.

5. It helps you make better decisions

When facing a decision, the more information you have on hand, the better.

Your employees often have insights that you don’t have access to. These insights can help you make
better-informed decisions.

Understanding Empathy

First, it’s important to understand what empathy is and what it means. Put simply, empathy means
being able to understand the needs of others. Empathy requires an awareness of other people’s
feelings. In the context of leadership, it means you have to consider the emotional impact of someone’s
work - not just measurable indicators of their performance, like KPIs.

Demonstrating empathy is what sets great leaders apart, which requires you to respond in a way that is
understanding of someone’s needs. In other words, great leaders aren’t only understanding of other
people’s needs, they’re respectful of them.
Demonstrating Empathy

There are 3 inherent qualities of empathetic leaders. While empathy can be difficult to master, the
following are the foundational characteristics of an empathetic leader.

1. Good Listener

A good listener is attentive, which is not to be confused with talkative. When someone is speaking, a
good listener will offer their full attention. A good listener makes eye contact and removes any
distractions (like email or phone calls) to allow that person to speak uninterrupted.

2. Nonjudgmental

The second quality of an empathetic leader is their ability to listen without casting judgment. Empathy is
not about agreeing, nor is it about disagreeing. It’s merely about understanding.

3. Emotional intelligence

While being nonjudgmental is about listening unconditionally, emotional intelligence is about stepping
back from emotions and seeing things how they really are. Emotional intelligence is important because it
allows you to cultivate meaningful insight into someone else’s situation. It means you are able to
respond from a place of sincerity.

The Importance of Empathy

There are several reasons that make empathy a core competency for truly effective leaders:

Trust

Being able to demonstrate empathy creates trust within your team. Trust creates an empowering,
honest relationship with your colleagues. In turn, this will increase collaboration and productivity, but
most importantly your team will be assured that their feelings are being taken care of.

Presence

Empathy also cultivates a greater presence in your leadership role. Juggling responsibilities can be
difficult and distracting, so demonstrating empathy allows you to increase your attentiveness and teach
you how to be patient.

Communication

If you’re able to demonstrate empathy, people will feel safe talking to you. It will allow you to listen and
have a clearer picture of how to effectively manage your team.

Merriam-Webster defines self-awareness as “an awareness of one’s own personality or individuality,”

but developing this attribute is harder than it seems from that definition. Cam Caldwell, Ph.D., an author
and professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield, says, “Self-awareness is an effort. It’s a conscious
effort to invest in understanding who we are, who others are, our universal rules that [we] apply in life
and our commitment to the future.” For leaders struggling to develop self-awareness, Caldwell advises,
“It takes work and willingness to recognize that reality is truth.”
Self-awareness is one of the key elements of emotional intelligence (EI), a term coined by psychologist
Michael Beldoch and widely popularized by Daniel Goleman that refers to a person’s ability to identify
and manage their emotions and identify and influence others’ emotions. Often, developing self-
awareness as a leader is also the first step in developing EI — which has proven particularly valuable in
leadership.

An article by keynote speaker and author Brent Gleeson highlights the importance of EI in leaders: “The
ability to be perceptively in tune with yourself and your emotions, as well as having sound situational
awareness can be a powerful tool for leading a team.” So, not only does self-awareness work to make
leaders more cognizant of their actions, emotions and biases — it helps them develop greater EI in the
process.

Developing self-awareness as a leader will strengthen not only individual performance but
organizational performance as well. Ultimately, the immense amount of understanding, trustworthiness
and wisdom that self-aware leaders possess equips them with critical skills for success.

“We’re committed to becoming excellent because we’re committed to the moral obligation we have to
care about others…[and] to make a better world,” Caldwell says of self-aware leaders. “We sense this
moral requirement that is part of humility that engages us and motivates us to invest in not only
ourselves but in others and their opportunity to improve.”

Characteristics of Self-aware Leaders

Caldwell credits humility as one of the most important character traits associated with self-aware
leaders. “Humility is a correct understanding of oneself, and that correct understanding leads to a better
understanding of others — because once we love ourselves, we better learn to appreciate others as
well.”

Gustavo Razzetti, author of “Stretch for Change” and “Stretch Your Mind” and CEO of Liberationist, a
change leadership company, also notes the importance of developing humility as a leader. He says that
“intellectual humility,” which is “knowing that you don’t know everything — first about yourself, second
about others and, then, about the world,” is another trait self-aware leaders should strive to develop.
Although practicing humility in the workplace does require a certain amount of vulnerability, which can
be anxiety-inducing, it helps create an environment where everyone feels comfortable acknowledging
his or her flaws and asking for help.

In addition to being humble, self-aware leaders are constantly looking to improve. They recognize their
own strengths, weaknesses and hidden biases and take accountability for them, and they consistently
ask for feedback in order to improve. Whether by requesting 360-degree feedback from team members
on a regular basis or investing in a continuing professional development program, self-aware leaders
recognize the value of continuous learning and growth. Razzetti shares, “Self-aware leaders, because
they’re more humble, know that they are not perfect. So, not only are they open to feedback, but
they’re constantly asking, ‘What can I do better?’”

Another way leaders can work to become more self-aware is by making a conscious effort to forgive.
“Truly wise leaders are very willing to forgive,” Caldwell says. “They forgive themselves; they recognize
that we don’t live in a world that’s perfect. They know that no one’s perfect.”
Organizational Benefits of Self-aware Leadership

By becoming more self-aware, and subsequently recognizing their strengths, weaknesses and hidden
biases, leaders gain the trust of their team members — and increase their own credibility. Additionally, a
culture of self-awareness advances learning and development (L&D) by promoting the value of
continuous growth and development. Razzetti says, “When people are self-aware, they can put their
tensions on the table, and no one gets hurt, because we’re trying to improve. So, we have this culture of
continuous improvement, and we don’t take things personally.”

Great Leaders Are Decisive

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong
thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.

– Theodore Roosevelt

Making decisions that are well-informed and time-sensitive is a crucial part of being a successful leader.
Decisive leaders seek out the appropriate information they need to make good decisions. In addition,
they show an understanding of the knowledge held by their direct reports, colleagues, and leaders. This
helps them gather information from these resources before making a final decision. Important decisions
can’t always wait until every option has been dissected. Effective leaders can identify and obtain critical
information, and gauge when enough detail has been collected in light of the potential outcomes.

Decisiveness is the ability to make clear-cut and timely decisions with the appropriate amount of
information. In the workplace, decisiveness is key to effectively executing plans and achieving goals. It is
important to balance the costs of continuing to deliberate, gather information, and delay a decision
versus the costs of making a poor choice. Decisive individuals are aware of these competing costs and
weigh them carefully. Most importantly, decisive leaders make decisions that are clear and final. This
skill can make the difference between plans lacking direction and those focused on achieving objectives.

In assessing your ability to be decisive, ask yourself the following questions:

Do I gather the right amount of information before making decisions?

Do I use all my resources to collect the right kind of information when making decisions?

Am I able to weigh the costs of analyzing options versus the costs of a poor decision?

Do I use careful evaluation, or do I rely on intuition to make decisions?

How do I gauge if a decision is too urgent or important to be put off?

Becoming More Decisive

Identify and gather essential information: An important part of being decisive is being able to identify
the information you need to make a good decision. To clarify, when faced with a choice, analyze the
situation to understand what you need to know. Then, use all available resources to collect the essential
information. Being decisive isn’t just about making a choice on your own; draw on the expertise and
experience of others around you. In short, effective information gathering is a requirement of good
decisions on tight timelines.

Know when to hone your focus: We rarely get the chance to focus on one decision at a time because we
also often have other priorities, tasks, and obligations. Work on recognizing when some decisions are
more urgent or more important than others. We can’t dedicate all of our time to decision-making, so
prioritizing effectively is critical. Recognizing the potential benefits or costs of a choice compared to
other decisions vying for your attention will help you better allocate your time and energy. Consider
prioritizing urgent decisions in the short-term, which can leave you more time and resources to tackle
other decisions or tasks that were temporarily set aside.

Understand your tendencies: All of us have different habits when it comes to making decisions. For
example, some of us prefer to carefully evaluate every option and consider every possible circumstance.
Others prefer to “go with their gut” and rely on their instincts for even the most important decisions.
Being more decisive requires that you examine how you’ve made decisions in the past. Being aware of
how you usually want to approach decisions will help you learn how you should approach them.
Remember, neither intuition- or reason-based decision making approaches are inherently bad. That is to
say, switching between them or blending the two will stop you from relying on the wrong approach and
making a negative impact on the quality of your decisions.1

Start Doing These 3 Things Now to Improve Your Decisiveness

The following steps can help you become better at making decisions:

Make note of your resources. Take stock of the expertise and knowledge of those around you, especially
your direct reports. Research suggests that employees have better attitudes and performance when
they participate in decision-making. Using your resources to gather information can not only improve
your own decision-making abilities, but can also have positive consequences for your team and
company2.

Prioritize effectively for each part of your role. Different parts of your job might require that you
determine urgency or importance in distinct ways. Consider if you are accounting for the different
aspects of your role when you evaluate whether one decision takes precedence over another. Take the
time to develop decision-making guidelines that recognize these differences, because good decisions are
unlikely to be the result of a “one size fits all” process. Knowing how to evaluate urgent decisions across
different facets of your job can boost your decisiveness. It can also help you focus on the key parts of
each situation.

Work on being comfortable with uncertainty. Wanting to make the right choice can cause stress and
anxiety about decisions3 and make you indecisive. The truth is that you often can’t have all of the
information or advice you want to make a decision. Therefore, accept when time constraints or other
circumstances have brought you to a decision point that cannot be postponed. Increase your comfort
with the uncertainty that remains after making a tough call. Finally, remind yourself that you’ve done all
you can with the time, resources, and information available to you.

The simple definition of communication, according to the Miriam-Webster dictionary, is:  "The act or
process of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to express or exchange information or to express
your ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc., to someone else."
Sounds simple, right? But if leaders and organizations don’t communicate effectively, employees will
naturally assume the worst. Great communicators engage their audience; they include them by asking
their opinions, using their suggestions, and responding to their feedback.

In communication, everything counts. These basics are non-negotiable when it comes to being an
effective communicator:

 Empathy. The ability to share in another’s emotions and thoughts.

 Body language. Actions speak louder than words. People are walking billboards advertising their
feelings. Passing someone in the hallway and saying “hi” with a smile conveys that person is
approachable and happy.
 Listening. When we listen and pay attention to people, we honor them.

Leaders Communicate With Actions and Attitude, Too

At a very basic level, communication is the transmission of information between a sender and a receiver.
But realize that your attitude and actions give additional meaning to your spoken and written messages.
Your behavior gives people information about your disposition, opinion, or mood — regardless of the
words you speak.

Communication can disclose the leader’s authenticity, sincerity, and virtually every other aspect of a
leader’s character. When a leader is all talk and no substance, people see right through the official
message.

The 21st century leader must have the ability to make the most out of every situation. They are
courageous and not afraid to challenge the status quo and push the boundaries to make things better.
Because of these qualities and many others, the best leaders know how to get the most out of people;
they enable the full potential in others.

An employee’s success, the lens they see through, the decisions they make and how they navigate their
careers are all heavily influenced by the types of leaders they are able to observe and learn from. This is
why you will find that many of today’s best leaders were mentored by great leaders themselves (see
examples of successful technology leaders and their mentors). Success as a leader is a by-product of the
leaders and mentors we associate with throughout our careers.

When managing your career, always be mindful of the leaders, mentors and networks that shaped your
leader’s style and approach. When you do, you will begin to understand at a much deeper level how
they were influenced to think, act and innovate. For example, the mentors and networks that guided
and enabled my full potential were a collection of potent pioneers -- explorers of endless possibilities –
that today are prominent leaders within the industries they serve. They each brought a unique
perspective to my development and their wisdom pushed me to see things about my own leadership
capabilities and aptitudes that I had never seen, fully appreciated or understood before.

You know that you found the right leader for your career when they are eager to take an active interest
in your growth and success. If your leader doesn’t show interest, this may be an early warning sign that
they are the wrong leader for you. So ask yourself, does your leader push you to see the full potential in
yourself?
Every employee is different, with their own set of experiences, values, cultural backgrounds, influences
and beliefs. The best leaders are those that can identify and appreciate the differences that one brings
to the table and knows how to put them to full use. These leaders are emotionally intelligent enough to
connect the dots and the opportunities within each dot to enable the full potential in each of their
employees.

They know how to take you out of your comfort zone to put your potential to the test. They observe
your ability to stretch yourself and whether or not you accept the challenges. You know that you have
found the right leader in your career when they never allow you to grow complacent and are constantly
testing and helping you develop your skill-sets and capabilities to prepare you for the next phase in your
career.

Here are just a few things that leaders do to enable an employee’s full potential:

1. Encourage them to think and act in ways that come most naturally to them

A great leader doesn’t try to make you think like they do. They embrace the natural ways you think and build off of
your own strengths. They know your “default settings” by observing the things you naturally gravitate towards
(and those that you don’t). The most effective leaders make sure they put you in situations that will leverage your
strengths and make you shine.

My organization knows this to be the case when training executives to develop their personal brands as leaders.
Our methodology aims to discover and fully leverage the natural potential in a leader’s identity – those authentic
skills and characteristics that allow them to unleash their distinction and executive presence to create the most
impact and influence for their employees and the organization they serve.

Our research continues to show that regardless of hierarchy or rank, 55% of leaders battle the gulf between
assimilation and authenticity. However, when they learn to trust their most authentic identity (those things that
make them strong), they realize that it represents the roadmap to their advancement and that of others. They
become more self-aware and learn how to course correct when necessary to assure they are always playing to
their strengths and maximizing their full potential.

2. Develop their decision-making abilities

Having good judgment and the ability to convert this into sound decision-making are imperative if an employee is
to make the most of the opportunities that come their way. A good leader knows how to evaluate an employee’s
decision-making blind spots. Many times it’s not just the immediate decision that needs to be made – but the
subsequent decisions that must be anticipated before circumstances force our hand. Without the ability to see
beyond the obvious, we are susceptible to falling into traps of our own making.

This is where a strong leader will begin to determine where an employee is most and least predictable in how they
react to a problem. As they guide them rightly to identify the consequences and probability patterns of each
decision, problem solving becomes a treasure hunt of unforeseen opportunities .

3. Expand their performance tolerance threshold

A great leader keeps close tabs on how much each employee is able to handle. They measure their performance
tolerance threshold by identifying how well they manage adversity, how they operate under pressure, their
willingness to accept new challenges and their overall mental toughness. Enabling their full potential means
working on the areas that require further attention and development – so that they will be able to rise to any
occasion on their own.
With the right guidance from leadership – encouraging employees to take risks, test their ideas and ideals, and
challenge the status quo in an effort to make things better – potential is something that will develop organically
over time.

4. Strengthen potential by surrounding it with those even stronger

A great leader knows that enabling potential without a supporting cast that can keep everything in perspective is a
zero-sum game. That is why you must surround potential with stronger and complementary pieces. Potential
needs to be challenged and surrounding it with other high-potential people can only make it stronger. In the
process, employees become wiser and develop a mindset that is not afraid to take chances and experience the
lessons of failure.

This is what happens when you are part of a high-performance team. Everyone in the organization has the
potential to become a top-notch performer. The key to success is strengthening a strong foundation of talent by
surrounding it with more experienced and knowledgeable people. Potential leaders must understand how the
game is played so that they can manage their agendas, develop maturity and project executive presence.

No matter how much potential an employee has, it can remain dormant if not managed rightly and properly
nourished with the right ingredients. A great leader will never allow an employee’s potential to go unnoticed or to
lose its momentum .Realizing potential to its fullest often requires breaking through barriers and creating new
paradigms. As such, the 21st century employee must see what others don’t, do what others won’t and keep
pushing when prudence says quit. Today’s leaders are not just looking for people to do their jobs better, but to
recreate their jobs in their own image – discovering new standards along the way to increase productivity,
sustainability and opportunities to impact the bottom line.