Is how you listen helping or hurting your leadership? A LinkedIn survey of nearly 14,000 employees around the world found that only 8% of employees reported that their mid- and senior-level leaders are practicing listening “very well.” Why? There are a lot of reasons. In one study conducted with 2,250 adults, Harvard psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert found that we spend around 47 percent of every waking hour “mind wandering.” But the biggest factor that I have seen surface over and over with mid- and senior-level leaders is how they listen. When you listen, do you interrupt, listen to respond, listen to solve, or wait for the other person to stop talking so that you can share? Do you listen only to what is being said versus the underlying emotion? Do you believe that listening equals agreement, so you prepare your rebuttal while the other person is talking? Are you efficient with people and move them along and try to get them to solution quickly?
