Active Listening in the Workplace: How It Makes You a Stronger Manager

What is active listening?

Active listening is a communication technique used to encourage understanding and comprehension. When engaging in active listening, the listener strives to hear and understand the message the speaker is trying to communicate. This involves paying close attention to the words spoken, as well as the tone, body language and overall context of the conversation.

Active listening often involves providing feedback to the speaker to ensure that the message is being properly received. By practicing active listening, both parties can ensure effective communication and avoid misunderstandings.

Active listening and emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence has been described as the ability to be aware of and understand one’s own emotions and the emotions of others. It’s a relatively new concept, first appearing in academic literature in the early 1990s. It’s thought to be important in many different areas of life, including personal relationships, work performance and business success.

Because understanding others’ states of emotion is at the core of emotional intelligence, active listening is an important part of it. While emotional intelligence is often thought to be like IQ in the sense that it’s an innate characteristic, active listening skills can be trained.

Why is active listening important?

Lack of communication in the workplace can cause operational hiccups and, at worst, crises. More importantly, employees may complain if they don’t feel their needs are being heard. In severe cases, this may lead to litigation which can be costly and time-consuming for businesses. Ensuring effective communication at work fosters an environment where people feel heard, accepted and cooperative. This has both tangible and intangible benefits for leaders.

Good leaders know not to overlook the importance listening skills can have. James Hume, author and professor of language and leadership at the University of Southern Colorado, describes the art of communication as the “language of leadership.” Active listening is one of the core facets of effective communication and an important skill for leaders.

Active listening techniques

People intuitively know if they’re being listened to. You may have experienced walking into an office to speak with someone only to find that they don’t look up from the document they’re reading as you talk. This type of behavior can make people feel like they’re being dismissed. What that body language tells you is that “this isn’t important enough for me to cease what I’m doing to listen.”

Active listening is the antithesis of this type of dismissive behavior. While it comes instinctively to many people, others may struggle with it. Let’s walk through some of the core practices of active listening.

1. Pay attention

To understand what someone is saying, it’s important to hear their words and pay attention to the message. This requires the listener to pay attention to the words, tone of voice, body language and other cues. By doing so, the listener can gain a better understanding of the speaker’s meaning.

2. Don’t multitask

While you may take pride in your ability to multitask, doing other things while an employee is trying to explain something important to you might not be the best way to practice. It can make them feel like they’re getting in your way, which can make them reluctant to approach you in the future.

Sit down with them and give them your undivided attention. If it’s not a good time, ask them to come back when you’re free to deal with the issue.

3. Face the speaker

People often tend to put a disproportionate amount of importance on words while dismissing body language. However, like all animals, our bodies convey messages and you can tell a lot about how a person is feeling by their bodies. That’s why facing a person while they speak to you is essential for making them feel heard.

4. Make regular eye contact

Part of being an active listener is making eye contact with the speaker. Eye contact helps create a connection between the two people and shows that the listener is interested in the conversation. Eye contact also helps cue the listener as to when it’s their turn to speak. When you maintain eye contact with the person you are talking to, you are sending a signal that you are listening attentively and taking in what they are saying.

However, it’s also important to break eye contact from time to time, as constant, unbroken eye contact may make the speaker feel uncomfortable.

5. Don’t interrupt

When someone comes to you with an issue, it’s important to let them fully explain before interceding. It’s easy to think you can predict what they’re going to say, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get it right. Aside from being basic conversational etiquette, it’ll make your employee feel understood and valued. Listen to the end to ensure you fully grasp what they’re saying to you.

6. Have a receptive attitude

Not interrupting doesn’t count for much without the receptive attitude to compliment it. It’s important to try to understand the issue from their perspective. Ask yourself questions like, “Why is this important to them?”, “How are they feeling about this?” and “How would I feel if I were them?” By asking yourself these questions, you’re maximizing your receptivity and are well on your way to becoming a gold-star active listener.

7. Summarize their points

Paraphrasing their points and repeating them back to them is arguably the most important aspect of active listening. It gives you the chance to ensure you’ve understood their message and assures them that you’ve been listening attentively. This is also a technique psychologists use when talking to patients and is a great skill for leaders to have under their belts.

When summarizing their points back to them, you can start your sentence with something like “So, if I’ve understood correctly . . . ” or “As I understand it . . . ” Always give them the opportunity to affirm or contest your interpretation of their message. This back-and-forth will increase the accuracy and understanding between you.

8. Offer feedback

Presumably, when someone comes to you with an issue, they’re looking for your thoughts on it. After summarizing their points to ensure you’ve understood them correctly, offer your thoughts on what they’ve said.

How active listening makes you a stronger leader

Practicing active listening is a crucial skill for managers to have in their toolkits. Here are all the ways it can benefit you at work.

1. Improved productivity

Effective communication is critical to workplace productivity. When employees communicate effectively, they’re better able to work together to achieve common goals. Good communication promotes clear and concise information exchange, helping prevent errors and misunderstandings. Furthermore, effective communication skills help employers build strong working relationships with their employees.

Good professional relationships are essential for fostering a collaborative work environment. When employees feel their contributions are valued, they’re more likely to invest in their work and be committed to their organization.

2. Employee trust

When employees know they can come to you and be met with receptivity, they’ll trust you with sensitive issues. This way, you can feel confident that you’ll be clued in on everything that’s happening in your organization. And when it comes to running an organization, that’s important.

3. Conflict resolution

Organizational conflict can arise for many reasons, but the important thing is how it’s dealt with. Whether it’s disagreements over tasks or issues with personalities, conflicts can arise between coworkers on a daily basis. However, if left unresolved, these conflicts can quickly escalate, leading to a hostile work environment. One way to prevent this from happening is by practicing active listening.

When practiced in the workplace, active listening can help resolve conflicts before they become too heated. By actively interacting with the person speaking, you show them you respect their opinion and are willing to work together to find a solution. In addition, by truly listening to what they’re saying, you may be able to find a compromise that satisfies both parties.

4. Effective problem-solving

Fully understanding a problem is key to solving it, and active listening ensures you get the best possible overview of an issue. This helps with coming up with effective solutions that directly target the problem at hand and minimize any possible damage.

5. Self-empowerment

Considering the many benefits that come with being a skilled active listener in personal and professional life, it’s easy to see how this can be an empowering skill to cultivate. Not only does it result in better business outcomes, but also your staff respecting you and viewing you as a leader with integrity.

This has many benefits for leaders, including making their work environment more enjoyable and influencing employees to act with integrity.