Photo Credit: Little's Photography
What was the most important part of your journey in becoming the leader you are today?
Most likely, like any other senior executive or entrepreneur, at a certain point of your growth you were told you had to learn how to speak in an effective way to be a successful leader — to make sure your team could understand you, crystal clear.
Public speaking is taught in college and is a requirement for business majors. Why isn’t it the same for listening?
Did you ever have a listening class?
I’ll bet you didn’t! But do you believe that active listening is crucial to reaching success as a leader? As leaders, we may not reinforce enough how important it is to actively listen.
If you pay attention, you will realise that bad listening habits are at the core of many of your team’s everyday challenges. Why should you choose to focus on listening instead of just worrying about improving your executive presence?
The real power in leadership is the way people listen, being present to hear what’s really going on — which can be the critical pivot point in how you and your organisation adapt to change during the biggest challenges.
Here’s why:
You might think it’ll take too long to listen, but the time pays off if you do it the right way. Learn how to actively listen (the right way) and adapt to change on this episode of The Enlightened Executive, with Susan Drumm and Erin Snyder.
Erin Snyder is a Seminar Leader with Landmark Worldwide, a personal professional growth training company. They help people create breakthroughs in their personal and professional lives through The Landmark Forum. As a fellow graduate of the Forum, Susan interviews Erin to discuss how The Landmark Forum impacts leadership development in its users.
So what is Landmark? “It’s an experience like no other,” says Erin, “like skydiving. It’s experiential!” Through the interactive multi-day programme, the Forum Leader guides attendees to discover new ways of engaging with different aspects of their lives. Unlike New Year’s resolutions, the programmes help you stick to your new goals and allow for real change. Landmark is different because of the methodology used. Unlike reading a book or attending a normal leadership seminar, Landmark encourages non-informative, personal discoveries. Instead of informing users of new tips and tricks, attendees go through a personal journey that allows them to break through problems.
The programme changes the way you listen, and this is crucial to one’s leadership.
If you’re interested in saving time through the way you listen, Landmark has plenty of programmes to help. Go to http://www.landmarkworldwide.com to get more information on the programmes and consulting arm, Vanto Group, named by Forbes as one of America’s best management consulting firms.
Make sure you subscribe to The Enlightened Executive for more insight on how your personal evolution can spark your leadership (r)evolution!