You have speakers and you have listeners. Speakers tell you how the world is. Listeners ask you how you see the world. I am a speaker. I write blogs. I tell you how the world is. But I have surrounded myself in my job with 3 wonderful listeners. Because I know they are important and needed to achieve things. It’s just that: in general, they are so underappreciated.
I think there are 2 problems when looking at listeners. The first problem has to do with change and improvements. People, certainly managers, often want improvements. So they want people that have ideas about how to improve. While I am not saying that listeners never have ideas, it’s not their strength. Their strength is to tell you all the improvements that go around in a company. They can point you to the people with the right ideas. They can give you feedback on proposed improvements, based on what they heard in the company. But they will not often tell you what you should do, they will tell you what you can do. The other problem is in a discussion with a speaker. Most of the time they will be convinced or give up. For them, harmony in the company is often more important than winning a certain discussion.
Because of this, you can see them as weaker than a speaker. But do not make that mistake. They are not. I learned I can start improvements, but I need listeners to make them stick. My successful projects are very often thanks to the listeners surrounding me. They were the people that got the feedback from colleagues. Feedback that I could use to improve the improvement. They were the people who answered the questions when I didn’t even think there were questions.
Speakers are important, but the problem is that it’s their strength to ignore other people’s opinions. That is what makes it possible to change. Because change is almost never what people want. But that stance often creates a distance, which can make them look unapproachable. The part where they always tell how the world works doesn’t help much. Certainly not when they are wrong. That even creates a greater distance.
That is where a good listener is important. They can take the role of understanding both the speaker and the people around the speaker. By this, they can be the person who is the bridge over the gap between the speaker and surroundings. They can show patience to both parties, and if they are really good can explain both sides. And when a conversation starts happening the speaker can improve themselves and the surroundings can start accepting the change. You might be so right as a speaker; when people do not believe it, your improvement will not work. And: you are never right 100% of the time, even when you think so.
A good listener is like an encyclopedia or Wikipedia of the company. A lot of information is available at your fingertips. Because a listener gets information from far more people than a speaker does. Because they listen, where you speak. But there is one very important thing. To make the best of both, the speaker needs to listen and the listener needs to speak. Both should decide for one moment to switch roles. The speaker to evaluate their plans. The listener for creating a better company for all the people.
The best teams are there where a listener and speaker work together as a leadership team. Both in their role and using their strength. So the company can improve, both by starting the change, no matter the opposition. And by evaluating the change, no matter the person complaining.