Happy Monday Friends!
Listening is leadership. You need to give time and space to what your team members need.
Often, that is access to you.
Not so much for your infinite wisdom, insider knowledge, and wonderful management skills. Though things like that may certainly come into play.
Most of the time, the most important thing is someone to listen to their needs, their ideas, and their perspective.
That is why a one-on-one meeting with your direct reports is so important.
Conversations are different depending on who is in them. They are also different according to the numbers.
Conversations that involve exactly two people are the most intimate. These dialogs are made for sharing perspectives, covering a broad range of thoughts on any particular topic, and discussing the emotional impact of any given situation.
It is healthy to confide in someone. For your direct reports, that someone needs to be you in many cases.
They need to let you in on the reality of their situation. So that you can help and support them. And so that you can maybe help to guide them a bit.
Your job is to create a safe space for that to happen in. Often, that is not best accomplished through scheduling a specific meeting on a specific project or task.
You are more likely to cultivate the environment for these discussions by having regular meeting times set in advance. The day and time of the meeting can be set, say weekly for 30 minutes. But the agenda can be fluid.
Sometimes there will be very specific tactical things to discuss. Sometimes it will be ok to skip the meeting because of some lull or scheduling conflict.
But many times there will be an opportunity for you to listen to the needs and desires of your direct report. Maybe it will be a passing comment. Or sometimes your whole meeting time will be focused on an important people issue of sorts.
For any of this to happen, you need to be available. And you need to be listening.
You can dispense your wisdom, give direction, and provide guidance. But all of that will be better too if you can listen first.
It is an important part of leadership. Hopefully your boss is listening too.
