To be successful leaders, we have to learn to listen. No revelation here. Steven Covey identified this as one of his habits of highly effective people back in 1989. But how challenging this is to do consistently in the busy leader’s life. There are board meetings, presentations, calls from the Boss, drive-byes in the corridors. All require “attention and intention.” We respond to emails from subordinates, posting on the corporate Facebook page, office-calls from colleagues and direct-reports. The necessary listening can become numbing, and that in fact is the risk. It is worth taking a moment now and then to remember that there are at least three things we accomplish when take the time to listen.
We listen to a problem. At the simplest level, people come to us because they hope that we will be able to solve a dilemma that they have been unable to get unraveled at a lower level. Those conversations usually start with what their supervisors and the chain of command has been unable to do. We listen carefully. Sometimes, because we have been doing this for a while, because we see something others might have missed, or simply because we are able to do what others haven’t, we can solve the problem (but always with a sensitivity to the chain of command.)
We listen for a pattern. When we hear the same concern repeatedly from a number of unrelated sources, we start to recognize that these are not isolated issues. Specific individual concerns may represent a systematic problem that must be assessed and addressed at a higher level. But unless we listen carefully, personally and attentively, we will often miss the pattern. What sounds like a series of random notes may actually represent a discordant song.
We listen to a person. Ptahhotep, an ancient Egyptian official during early 24th century BC wrote, “Those who must listen to the pleas and cries of their people should do so patiently, because the people want attention to what they say even more than the accomplishing for which they came.” It is a timeless truth. We may not be able to solve the problem. There may not be a discernible pattern in what we are hearing. But careful, active, attentive listening to an individual’s concern communicates that we care about him or her as individuals. It gives us a window into their worlds. And it helps us to remember that these are indeed people we are leading.
In the business of leading we run the risk of progressive “altitude deafness:” the higher we move in the organization, the more challenging it is to hear what is going on at ground level. We can fail to listen and we can fail to remember why we are listening. We will certainly fail as leaders if we fail to do both.
Chuck Callahan Henry V 4.3 – Lead from the Front https://henryv43.wordpress.com/
Henry V 4.3 
I wonder if in certain positions there can be a “repetitive deafness” or the challenge of losing compassion after hearing the same plea (or excuse) over and over again. It may not necessarily have to come from the same person, but after hearing “the sky is falling” the nth time I may not be as likely to have the same reaction as I did after the first 3 times.
Think you are absolutely right, Rex. I know that I have been guilty of “repetitive deafness” in my career. Your comment reminded me that there is also a “selective deafness” that is a reflection of our “ladder of inference” based on previous experience and perspective. I found this quote in a radiology paper about lung disease when I lived in Hawaii, but it is true of so many aspects of life (with hearing as with seeing) “We see only what we look for; we look for only what we know.” (Sosman MC, Dodd GD, Jones WD, Pillmore GU. The familial occurrence of pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis. Am J Roentgenol Radium Ther Nucl Med 1957;77:947-1012.)
Indeed, listening is a key leadership task. In our AAR following one of our exercises in my CGSC small-group today, a classmate brought up the point that some people were tuning out while another brought up the point that the same people who were tuning out were those who had brought up questions and concerns only to have their questions/concerns heard but seemingly discarded. So listening is one thing but hearing is another. To listen, one must hear. To hear, one must act even if it is only to explain why what has been heard requires no change/action. If this link is lost, then we only have an empty process that is devoid of meaning and purpose. If this link is lost, we should not be surprised that people stay quiet and seem apathetic, numb and disconnected. If good and smart people tune out then all we’ll have to listen to will be the flatterers and uncritical yes-men, a most dangerous situation indeed.
Absolutely agree…a great point. Part of what we must do as leaders is to make sure that all of those engaged in a dialogue stay engaged (see “3-D Meeting Dynamics). That means that we need to be able to loosen our grips on our preconceived notions of how the conversation should go, and regularly practice active listening.