A Leader's Gift: How to Earn the Right to Be Followed by Barry Banther

Author:Barry Banther
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Published: 2014-04-15T18:30:00+00:00

RECEIVE THE GIFT OF THANKS IN RETURN.

Valued employees are empowered employees. When you give the gift of listening you send the message that your employees are important to you. And they will react to that in the way they work. Their first reaction is not hesitation, wondering what to do. On the contrary, they will have the confidence to think through the situation, collaborate with another colleague, and then take the action they think is in the best interest of the customer. Can there be any better thank-you to you as a leader than to watch your associates step up and be part of the team?

A lot of leaders give lip service to the notion of “listening to their employees,” but when it comes to empowering employees by listening to them, frankly, Sam Walton had few peers. For instance, to inspire his managers to listen he told them, “The key to success is to get into the stores and listen to what the associates have to say. It’s terribly important for everyone to get involved. Our best ideas come from clerks and stock boys.”14 They did, and the results of that listening have been astounding.

There is great power in employees who feel strong enough to be independent. When my manager listens to me without prejudice and I feel valued, I will likely choose to model that behavior, listening to others and valuing them. Again, your thank-you for becoming a good listener is employees who will do the same thing and drive the success of your business.

As the CEO and president of General Motors, John F. Smith undertook the most significant reorganization in the company’s history. He succeeded in engendering this practice of listening among the management team and the results were that GM went from near bankruptcy to a profit! Smith concluded, “We listened to what our customers wanted and acted on what they said and good things happen to you when you pay attention!”15

There is great power in being an informed leader as well. When the company’s growth is the result of your listening to those you lead, they will recognize that. They will have a vested interest in your success. They will trust you. Not because you have become one of them; rather, because you have invited them to become more like you—a person who listens with empathy and, as a result, finds understanding.

Understanding is the only path to trust. Trust is the unseen essential that enables work teams to achieve the extraordinary. But trust is also necessary for information to flow freely up and down within an organization. So many of the serious errors that harm our work begin as small issues. Someone notices them, but without an environment that encourages leaders to listen and employees to speak up, those small issues are pushed aside.

Chances are very good that right now your associates have information you need to hear. By choosing to practice all five of the key listening skills we just covered, you will create a new openness to hearing both what needs to be said and what isn’t being said.

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