Topic: Listening

The Importance Of Listening For Organizational Success

Ryan Arshad

It's a simple concept that many leaders struggle with: effective listening. Listening skills are crucial
to giving leaders access to the knowledge and diversity in perspective needed to make better business
decisions, mitigate risk and improve the employee experience.

Research has shown that leaders who carry a style strongly in interpersonal skills such as listening
are rated as significantly more effective than those who prefer dictating their orders. But all business
leaders must continue to actively work on listening.

In the words of the late Larry King, “I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will
teach me anything. So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening.”

Learning to listen effectively is more important than ever, as leaders who do so will help their
organizations grow, innovate and retain top talent. When becoming a mentor or teaching others,
leaders must remember that communication is always a two-way street. Both parties gain value by
listening to each other and sharing insights.

Listening is especially important in today's business environment, as employees are often spread
across the globe, working remotely and in different time zones. When open communication and
active listening by leaders is baked into an organization's culture, the organization's chance of success
is much greater.

Employees value listening but don't feel heard.

Unfortunately, many employees in the workplace do not feel heard. According to research from The
Workforce Institute, 86% of employees feel they are not heard “fairly or equally,” and 63% believe
their voice has been ignored by their employer or manager. This is a troubling statistic, especially if
you consider how many organizations can gain from actively listening to their employees.

In a recent Salesforce Research study, over 1,500 business professionals were surveyed on
value-driven leadership and workplace equality. The study revealed that when an employee feels
heard, that person is 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to perform to the best of their ability.

Businesses with a pulse on their employees’ feelings—including professional aspirations and

goals—not only exude a level of compassion for their staff but also gain a better understanding of
which technologies, solutions and best practices will benefit their operations most. They can also
recognize and address any employee concerns before losing top talent.
A culture of listening can optimize a fail-fast environment.

The environment in which employees work directly impacts how successful a company becomes. A
report by The Engagement Institute found that disengaged employees cost U.S. companies up to
$550 billion a year. So, how can leaders listening help improve the environment employees work in?
Simple: Leaders must ensure employees feel like they can speak up about their ideas or concerns
without feeling like they will face unfair repercussions.

Leaders can—and should strive to—create an environment where learning and listening are valued.
This can be done by creating a fail-fast environment. The fail-fast approaches use the speed of agile
strategy to create a workspace that allows employees to test innovative ideas to improve processes
and outcomes and quickly receive feedback to validate or invalidate their theories. Feedback is a
critical component of successful fail-fast environments.

The principle of discovering quality with fast feedback introduces the notion of a product mindset
and an environment in which uncertainty is incrementally reduced via crucial, instructive feedback.
Feedback helps the organization gain the learning needed at the right point—when change is still
possible and less expensive. It's a cornerstone of successful teams—and successful leaders.

A fail-fast environment encourages collaboration and two-way communication—two key

requirements of a healthy, innovative and forward-looking company.

Fail-fast environments also ensure that ideas are being shared freely and openly. Great ideas come
from all facets of the organization and at all levels. If leaders do not give employees the forum to
speak and share ideas, they are almost certainly missing out on valuable insight and potential
innovation.

The outcomes of successful listening are clear.

Listening is really about empowering employees. Leaders who focus on listening build an
organization focused on inclusivity and wisdom while creating a more open, trusting relationship
between themselves, their employees and the company. Leaders can help empower employees to
express themselves through workplace learning and the use of new technology, but here, too,
listening remains key.

Listening to employees' aspirations and goals can help leaders link workplace training programs to
employees that will get the most value out of them. Making the benefits of workplace training more
recognizable to employees can be as simple as asking for input.

In a 2022 study conducted by my own company Emergence, 55% of learners stated that learning and
development (L&D) programs increased job satisfaction and employee morale. Additionally, 75%
said that strong workplace training would have a very high or high impact on their decision to stay
with an employer rather than seek other opportunities. As a disclosure, my company Emergn is a
provider of such L&D solutions.

When it comes to implementing new intelligent technologies, listening to employees can help ease
fears and concerns. According to a 2021 report from Emergn, 55% of the top barriers preventing
organizations from seeing the most positive impact from intelligent automation are related to people.
These include managing and integrating multiple processes (22%), resistance to process change
among the workforce (13%), resistance to process change among senior leaders (11%) and lacking
the skill sets to implement automation (9%).

Leaders must communicate openly, listen to employee concerns and share how a process will work
from the beginning of its announcement and implementation. It is up to leaders to remove the barriers
that prevent organizations from adopting new, mission-critical technologies.

Listening has many benefits, especially when leaders listen to employees within their organization. It
builds a better working environment and helps solve challenging barriers to successfully
implementing workplace training and new technologies. By stepping back and taking the time to
listen with intent—leaders can propel their organization forward.

Exercise 1

Answer the questions below!

1. Are listening skills important to leaders nowadays?

2. What research has shown about leaders’ listening skills?
3. What is the relationship between listening and leaders to theirs’ organizations?
4. What does the Workforce Institute think about employees in the workplace?
5. What Salesforce Research has shown to us about employees in the workplace?
6. What The Engagement Institute has shown to us about employees in the workplace?
7. What does it mean with ‘a fail-fast environment’?
8. What does Emergence have said in 2022 to us about employees in the workplace?
9. What does Emergence have said in 2021 to us about employees in the workplace?
10. What kind of benefits leaders could get from listening skill?

Exercise 2

Answer the following questions based on your own opinion!

1. In your opinion, what would you do if you were a consultant assigned to handle listening skill
training at a big company?
2. Arrange several points that you mention on the first question on a simple manuscript!
3. Present your manuscript in front of a small group or class then discuss it!
4. In your opinion, what is the most important thing to help employees who are disengaged in
their workplace?

Exercise 3

Read the following sentences, putting in the given adverbs

1. He has told me he is in love with me (frequently)

2. I do get off a bus when it is moving (never)
3. You ought to get off a bus when it is moving (never)
4. I’ve met a more ill-mannered man (seldom)
5. I have seen you properly dressed (hardly ever)
6. I used to want more than half an hour for my friend Kate (nearly always)
7. “I have been able to get in for nothing (nearly always).” “I have been so lucky (never).”
“I have to pay (always).”
8. “Were you able to understand mathematical problems? (ever).” “No I could! (never).”
9. “Mark used to call me by my first name (always).” “In my opinion he ought to have
spoken to you at all! (never).”
10. “I have seen a worse piece of work (rarely).” “I have (never.”

Exercise 4

Observe the scramble letters below. Then, find eight words related to the topic.

N O I T A L E R

F P U B L I C E

S I M D O A I P

C N A E T I F O

G I H R U S F R
L O G I C O O T

U N O J A N V I

D I R E C T O R

Let’s Talk: My Extended Family

1. Case:

“Suppose you have a family with foster siblings. Now, they are in junior high. They are
very active and they always mimic you. One of them, John, asked you “Why is the earth
round?” You had not answered yet but he asked you again, “Why diamonds located deep
in the earth?”

Instruction:

1. Make a group of 3 people. Three of you will be cast as the older brother, the
father and the smart sibling.
2. As a wise older brother, what kind of good answer will you explain to him? You
can take the above text as a reference.

2. Early friendship

Maybe you already know some of your classmates. Usually you will not know all of them
and, occasionally, even you and the students you know by name actually know very little
about each other. Your first opportunity to talk to your class should give you an
opportunity to introduce yourself.

What are some of the facts and ideas that others will want to know about you? Some of
the more important items about yourself are:

Your name
Your place of birth
Your address and interesting details about your neighborhood
Members of your nuclear family
Your hobbies and interests
Your pets
The school or schools you have attended
Ideas that you might develop about your main interest are:

What it is
How you got started
What equipment is required and how much it costs
Whether you pursue this hobby by yourself or with a group
Famous people who are or have been interested in the same hobby

Below is a sample of an early meeting given by a student about herself. She is not brave
having some fun with his name. But you may want to be more serious, to give more facts
about yourself, or even to be shorter. Besides, you may like your name.

My name is Alexis Deeper. I’m willing to exchange it for a new one if anyone is willing
to exchange. That is not a sign to the boys, however!
Some people dislike their first names. Some dislike their last ones. But I’m unhappy
about both of mine. Why shouldn’t I be? Nobody knows how to spell either of them.
When I enroll in a class, I have to spell my name for the teacher. Besides, everyone looks
at me in astonishment. I suppose, why would anybody give me such a name? I think
children should not be named until they’re old enough to pick their favorite name. Don’t
you agree? Just for fun.
Whatever my name, I hope we can stay here long enough for me to finish university. I
like this beloved campus, ivory-like campus, and I now have some great friends here.