Timeless Management Advice
by Miki Saxon
Bosses spend inordinate amounts of time, and often money, working on improving their management skills, frequently turning to the latest “thought leader” for insightful new approaches.
But trendy isn’t always good and frequently it isn’t even new.
Rather than spending your time listening to a varying roster of pundits, why not get it straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth. i.e., your workers.
Ask anyone at any level what they love most about their boss and, in one form or another, they’ll say “they listen.”
Ask what they hate and some version of “they don’t listen” usually tops the list.
Listening isn’t rocket science, but it is one of the smartest, most formidable skills you can develop that will also serve you in a myriad of situations well beyond your role as a boss.
Ironically, it’s not the actual listening that people find so daunting. Rather it’s the pre-listening step that trips so many up.
So, if your goal is to listen, then you must practice its anagram, which is to be silent.
The first is impossible without doing the second.
In other words, your ears turn off when your mouth is running.
As I said earlier, not rocket science.
Image credit: Steve Heath
