Ducks in a Row: Don’t Be an A**hole
by Miki Saxon
Receiver Larry Fitzgerald, entering his 15th season, said this is the advice he’d like to give rookies.
God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason. Listen twice as much as you talk. You learn a lot more when you’re listening.
Wally Bock quoted the same thing in a recent post.
Describing a manager who made a major hiring error that went uncorrected, I commented , that he couldn’t hear and wouldn’t have listened anyway.
Of course, it’s easier to talk than listen.
And you can’t really listen if you are looking at your phone.
Or doing anything on your computer.
Or thinking about where to go to lunch or what to make for dinner.
Or thinking about what you want to say as soon as the other person shuts up.
In other words, you can’t listen, really listen if you’re multitasking.
I might end this post with Wally’s high-level, positive summing up.
Listening is a critical leadership skill you can master. It will help you learn about the people you work with, demonstrate you think they’re important, and help you make better decisions.
But my take is low-level simple.
Knowing and practicing good listening is a great way to avoid being the lead character in Bob Sutten’s book The No Asshole Rule.
Image credit: Alan Goudy
