WHY IT’S TOUGH FOR BUSY LEADERS TO LISTEN
A lot of leaders get stuck in isolation because they are at the top of a large organization and lose touch with the front lines. Whether it’s people to whom you’re ministering, people to whom you’re providing a service, or people to whom you’re selling things, you have to learn that the end user is king. It is for that person’s sake that you do what you do.
The higher you go in leadership, the more you’re isolated and insulated from those people on the front lines. That’s one of the biggest reasons you have to learn to listen to your people.
For twenty years, I served as CEO of a global non-profit. I know what it is like to have too many demands from too many people. When we start out in leadership, we might just have one or two people looking to us to lead them. But what if we are wildly successful? What if we get promoted? Or what if our teams grows, and before we know it, we have dozens of people expecting us to be an example of a caring leader? What will happen if our team grows to an organization of hundreds? This is a great problem to have, but it brings its own problems with it!
Here are 5 top reasons why it is tough for busy leaders to listen:
1. Too little time – The more people you lead, the less time you have for each person. And, of course, the more demands each of them has of you. “Wow,” you might think to yourself, “I used to have a lot more time for me before I got this team!” The telecommunications revolution is tightening the information noose around the neck of the leader. Leaders can become so saturated with communication that they find their systems shutting down from a time-crunch.
2. Too many people – Most people in your organization want a piece of the leader at one time or another. And they want you to take the time to listen to them. And thus, the crisis of expectations: the more there are, the harder it is to link up with them and listen.
3. Too much pressure – Leaders find themselves under constant pressure from deadlines and responsibilities they can barely handle alone. You have the onslaught of email, texts, and social media. There are so many ways people can bombard us. The image of a soldier in battle comes mind. Here I sit in the trenches. Bullets are flying everywhere, planes are buzzing overhead, tanks are rolling in my direction, and the radio is crackling with news from many fronts. In the midst of this, along comes one of my people who wants a long, quiet conversation about his concerns. The extreme pressure of leadership sometimes makes it very difficult to listen attentively.
4. Too big a distance – In some cases, the problem of physical distance between the leader and his or her followers makes it tough to stay in close contact. My wife, Donna, leads a team of direct sales specialists who are physically located all over North America. She spends a lot of time connecting with her team via phone, Skype, Zoom, Voxer, and other applications. At times, she gets frustrated because she cannot simply sit down with them and have a face-to-face conversation.
5. Too much knowledge – Leaders sometimes know so much that they find it hard to listen to people rehearsing stories, facts, or anecdotes they have already heard a thousand times. As your team member is droning you on, you are thinking, “Okay, I have already heard that story,” or, “Tell me something I don’t know!” The more knowledge we have and the more we’ve experienced, the harder it is to listen to others patiently.
Nothing stops the progress of an organization more quickly than leaders failing to listen. Followers want to communicate with their leaders. If you fail to listen to them, their very effectiveness and job satisfaction will be in jeopardy. You don’t have to agree with them, but they need to know that they were heard.
Wouldn’t it be better if you began to change the narrative in your organization? Watch out for tomorrow’s post on critical action points.
Have you got any questions? Let’s discuss it.
To your success,
Bright UK
The Chief Scribe
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