In this video Tom Peters makes a bold claim – and one I agree with.
Strategic listening is more important to an organization’s success than a strategic plan.
Consider this: a group of top executives from a major manufacturer in Chicago were asked to survey the role that listening played in their work. Later an executive seminar on listening was held. Of that training one participant said:
“It’s interesting to me that we have considered so many facets of communication in the company, but have inadvertently overlooked listening. I’ve about decided that it is the most important link in the company’s communication, and it’s obviously also the weakest one.”
The group met in 1956.
It was written about in the Harvard Business Review in the September-October 1957 edition.
53 years later business executives, leaders, bosses, wholesalers, relationship managers, friends, parents, and spouses are not better listeners – they are worse.
In fact at my last firm my boss would relentlessly cut off the person speaking in a meeting with the now infamous, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, got it, got it, got, it” spoken as quickly as his lips could move.
There is a way to improve.
The two hour Listening Workshop from shorespeak will improve your listening skills and that of your team.