Elevating Leadership and Team Dynamics by Listening Like a Coach
With all that is expected of leaders, the many responsibilities that pull them in any number of directions, it can be easy for them to overlook one of the most powerful tools at their disposal: active listening. Active listening is about giving another person our full attention and letting them know that we’re attending through our body language and actions, not just lending our ears.
Yet, despite active listening’s profound impact on leadership effectiveness, it remains an underrated and underutilized skill. How underutilized is active listening? While this will likely come as no surprise, Gitnux’s Active Listening Statistics And Trends in 2023 report found that 80% of all workplace complaints and conflicts largely stem from poor communication. The same report also found that:
- Managers who received training in active listening saw a 30% improvement in employee satisfaction
- Active listening increased collaboration and productivity by up to 25%
- Active listening improved sales performance by 8%
Knowing the impact active listening has on teams, who better to learn how to improve listening skills than coaches? During “How to Listen Like a Coach: Coaching Skills Every Manager Needs,” Alexis Mobley, Wissam El Khatib, Galia Pennekamp, and Saskia Houwing collaborated to break down how every manager can themselves learn to become better coaches through improving their listening skills.
In this blog post, we’ll explore active listening’s profound influence on trust, engagement, and growth within organizations, while also highlighting some of the common challenges leaders face when they neglect this critical skill. We’ll also discuss the pivotal role of fostering a coaching culture within organizations and how leaders can lead by example to inspire psychological safety and trust among their teams.
Understanding Active Listening
Active listening is a deliberate form of communication that demands the listener’s acute awareness of the speaker’s needs and unspoken messages. It entails giving feedback without making judgments or using the conversation as an opportunity to advance one’s own agenda. Although it may appear straightforward, this skill is incredibly important and is surprisingly challenging to fully grasp, even for seasoned and adept communicators.
Wissam, in his insight, emphasized the importance of understanding nonverbal cues. He rightly points out that much is said without words. Effective active listening involves not only hearing the spoken words but also interpreting the messages conveyed through body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice — nonverbal cues. By tuning into these signals, a listener gains deeper insights into the speaker’s emotions and intentions, paving the way for more meaningful conversations.
Curiosity as a Catalyst
Curiosity, as Galia suggested, is a cornerstone of active listening. It fuels the desire to understand the speaker’s perspective, prompting us to ask clarifying questions and dive deeper into what’s being discussed. Cultivating curiosity shows genuine interest in the conversation, ultimately encouraging the speaker to open up and share more. Curiosity is the key to unlocking the full potential of active listening and allows us to connect more profoundly with others.
Fostering a Culture of Active Listening
Fostering a culture of active listening within organizations, as emphasized by Saskia, begins with leadership’s awareness of the skill’s importance and their active involvement in coaching and mentoring. Prioritizing active listening among leaders sets a tone for the entire organization, establishing a safe space for all team members to express their opinions and experience genuine acknowledgment. This inclusive environment ultimately fosters collaboration and innovation, becoming a vital component of a thriving workplace.
Demonstrating Listening in Leadership
Leaders play a pivotal role in developing the culture of their teams. As Alexis wisely suggested, the foundation of leadership begins with genuine care for the people they lead. When leaders truly care about their team members, they become more willing to engage in active listening — not merely to provide solutions but to understand and empathize with their team’s needs.
Effective leaders also ensure that all voices are heard, even those not present in a given meeting. By actively seeking out and amplifying diverse perspectives, leaders can create a more inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and heard.
The Power of Reflective Listening
As managers, the people in charge of the direction of teams, it can be quite easy to become defensive in situations where you might be receiving feedback or discussing decisions you’ve made. If and when you find yourself in such a situation, Galia had valuable insights to share about how leaders can be more reflective than defensive in their listening.
When receiving feedback or engaging in difficult conversations, it’s essential to step back and consider the truth in what is being shared. This requires the ability to detach from a defensive posture and genuinely listen, even when faced with discomfort. It’s particularly relevant when addressing issues involving marginalized community members, where creating a safe space for voices to be heard is crucial.
The aphorism, “Silence is such a great way to listen sometimes,” underscores the power of silence in active listening. Silence allows for reflection, both for the speaker and the listener. It grants us the necessary pause for understanding and processing information, and leaders who embrace silence create atmospheres where meaningful and thoughtful conversations can flourish.
Empowering Distributed Teams Through Virtual Listening
In today’s increasingly virtual work environment, leaders face the challenge of demonstrating active listening in virtual meetings and effectively conveying their engagement and presence. Here, we’ll explore strategies and techniques that leaders managing distributed teams can employ to foster better communication and build stronger connections.
As Galia pointed out, taking notes while listening in virtual meetings can be a powerful tool. Jotting down key threads and words not only helps in retaining information but also shows the speaker that their words are valued and acknowledged. Another effective technique is using reflective language — repeating the language someone uses and reflecting it back to them. This simple act makes individuals feel seen and heard, enhancing the quality of the interaction.
In a virtual context where face-to-face interactions are limited, remembering personal details is a valuable skill. Leaders can make a significant impact by recalling and referencing what team members have shared in previous conversations. For instance, if a team member mentioned their recent move, checking in with them about it demonstrates genuine care and fosters a sense of connection.
Empowering distributed teams through virtual listening involves a combination of practical techniques, empathetic gestures, and a mindful approach to overcoming mental biases. Leaders who prioritize active listening and employ these strategies create an environment of trust, connection, and collaboration even in virtual settings.
Challenges and Resistance in Active Listening
Building a coaching culture within an organization involves multiple dimensions, including measurement, overcoming resistance, addressing culture misalignment, and practicing self-awareness. In this expansive discussion about the power of listening like a coach and its impact on teams, our panelists highlighted these key challenges with getting these cultural shifts off the ground.
Measuring Leadership Styles and Impact
Measuring leadership styles in terms of listening, empathy, and other coaching-related aspects is key, per Galia. Data-driven insights can be persuasive, demonstrating how leadership approaches impact retention, satisfaction, engagement, and other critical factors. Cultivating a culture of coaching should be backed by data that shows the positive correlation between coaching and desired outcomes.
Managing Resistance and Ownership
Not everyone is going to embrace a coaching culture willingly. Alexis acknowledged this. Some individuals may resist change or personal growth efforts. Leaders must recognize that they cannot want success for others more than those individuals want it for themselves. Despite efforts to create a psychologically safe environment and offer coaching, there comes a point where individuals must take ownership of their own growth.
Addressing Cultural Misalignment
When a workplace culture does not support a coaching environment, leaders can still control their actions. Honesty is key in acknowledging and reckoning with an organization’s culture, especially when it feels competitive or toxic. By addressing these issues openly and caring for team members, leaders can create a space for greater psychological safety and shift the culture gradually.
Practicing Self-Awareness
Both Saskia and Alexis emphasized self-awareness as a critical aspect of fostering a coaching culture. Leaders should be conscious of their behavior in meetings, resisting knee-jerk reactions or the urge to interject. Asking for permission to share opinions, reflect, and interject, and pausing to listen fully, ultimately promotes an environment in which listening to understand and support is the norm.
Fostering a coaching culture
So, how do you do it? How do you begin to build this culture of listening like a coach?
Creating a coaching culture within an organization involves adopting different leadership styles and understanding their impact on the environment. It also requires measuring the influence of coaching on team performance and engagement, aligning it with organizational values and key performance indicators (KPIs).
As Wissam suggested, the environment leaders create in their communication plays a crucial role in fostering a coaching culture. Providing constructive criticism can often lead to defensiveness and resistance to change. On the other hand, positive feedback creates a supportive atmosphere where individuals are more receptive to feedback. Leaders can connect the seed of change to a person’s growth and dreams within this nurturing environment, making it easier for team members to embrace change and development.
Galia emphasized the importance of understanding what behavior is rewarded within an organization. Motivation is challenging to achieve when leaders adopt an attack mode or rely on constructive criticism. Recognizing and rewarding behaviors that align with the desired coaching culture is essential. Sometimes, organizations may send mixed messages by promoting high producers who exhibit behaviors that go against the collaborative, supportive, and team-oriented culture they claim to value. Addressing this inconsistency is a complex challenge that requires attention to culture, team dynamics, and leadership.
Fostering a coaching culture involves creating a supportive communication environment with positive feedback, understanding the impact of different leadership styles, and aligning rewards with desired behaviors. Measuring the impact of coaching culture on team performance and engagement, as well as ensuring alignment with organizational values and KPIs, is essential for cultivating a culture that encourages growth, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Conclusion
Active listening, empathy, and coaching aren’t just leadership skills but essential tools for building a thriving team and organization. In this post, we’ve highlighted some of the valuable insights on enhancing active listening skills and fostering a coaching culture. They emphasized that leaders who create environments of trust, engage in empathetic listening, and prioritize coaching empower their teams to achieve greater success.
By embracing these practices and overcoming resistance, leaders can pave the way for positive cultural shifts that lead to more inclusive, innovative, and productive workplaces. The journey to becoming a coach-like leader and fostering a coaching culture may come with challenges, but the potential rewards for both individuals and organizations are immeasurable. It’s time for leaders to harness the transformative power of active listening and coaching, driving their teams towards success and growth in today’s dynamic work landscape.
To hear even more from our panelists whose wisdom is shared above, watch the full recording of the event. And if you’re curious about bringing coaching to your organization to begin making some of the transformations we’ve explore here, schedule a demo with us to learn how Bravely can help you.
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