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Great Leaders Listen

Published on January 23, 2020 by Scott Zielski

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Use listening as a tool to retain caregivers and build your relationship with them

If you are having issues connecting with your staff and holding on to your caregivers, you might want to look in the mirror and see how you can improve your leadership.

Leadership is one of the most important aspects of business because it sets the tone for the entire company. If you are an engaging, energetic leader who really cares about your employees, there is a better chance that the rest of your employees will be more engaged and energetic about work and driving business.

1. Listen and understand what is being said

Great leaders spend more time listening than they do speaking, making sure that they fully understand what is being said or what needs to be resolved before providing a response.

Poor leaders will be thinking about their response before the other person has even finished making their statement. Be sure that you are allowing your employees to finish their thought before you start yours. Interrupting people while they are trying to speak to you is extremely disrespectful and can cause your employees to avoid speaking to you in the future.

2. Think before you speak

This is an idea that our parents have been telling us since we were very young, yet many people fail to do so.

Taking the time to think and collect your thoughts and make sure that you fully understand what you are responding to can improve the quality of the conversation and the level of respect and trust between you and your employees.

3. Know who you are talking to and know their story

To effectively communicate with your caregivers, you need to fully understand who you are talking to and how they might view the situation you are discussing.

Taking the time to get to know your employees on a more personal level and understanding what they are like outside of work will give you a better perspective on how they view things, ultimately making it easier for you to have a more meaningful conversation with them.

4. Treat everyone fairly and equally

In business and at work, you can not play favourites in how you treat your employees; everyone is there for the same reason to accomplish the goals of the business and to earn an income. You make “click” with some people more than others, but you need to be able to control how you communicate and treat people in the workplace.

This goes back to building respect and trust between you and your employees because if you show someone more respect than your other employees, it will create tension with the other employees, effectively hurting the quality of work being performed.

5. They manage their tone and attitude

Great leaders and managers have the ability to control their tone and attitude in a tense situation. If an employee is presenting an idea that is contrary to your own, being able to control your tone to not sound upset or mad and keeping your attitude in a place where you can be respectful and fair will increase the quality of your conversation.

Resources:

https://www.lollydaskal.com/leadership/how-do-the-best-leaders-avoid-miscommunication/