Managers – and listening skills
Think about the best manager you ever worked with. What made him or her so special.
If I were a betting woman – and I’m not!! – I would bet that being a good listener would be on the list.
Clearly I advocate coaching as an invaluable personal development skill. I also look forward to the day when coaching ( active listening and asking questions) is the way things are done anyway. It might put me out of a job but being at work should have a whole new complexion.
And having done a little bit of conflict resolution training and investigating mediation for when things are going/have gone wrong the role of the good listener also becomes clear.
And even when things have gone really wrong and it looks like the employee and the employer will be parting company – and this might mean ending up in court – the manager who can listen might be able to head that off.
Let’s be clear about what I mean by being a good listener as I expect many people have already said “all well and good but who has time in today’s busy environment”. I mean “listening with a purpose” so that something comes out of it that – hopefully – benefits both parties.
In the case of coaching – great performance and employee engagement.
In the case of conflict resolution – an understanding and a plan for the future.
In the case of mediation – a win win situation.
In the case of heading off a law suit …..well you guess that benefit that might have!
Providing managers with training on listening skills should be a requirement in organisations. But, and I think crucially , there should be some supported development of the skill too eg in groups of three so that practice can be observed and skills developed in action. Or – and this is where the sales pitch comes in – by providing coaching for the manager for a while to appraise their own performance, including encouraging them to seek feedback.
Does this seem like a lot of effort? Where would we find the time?
Well all I can say is – if the legal fees and compensation payments are anything to go by – it would be time ( and money) well spent!
