Listening without Reacting

As a leader, do you know and use the skills of listening - without reacting?

Listening is harder than speaking. Even the best listeners sometimes have to bite their tongues to stop from reacting, interrupting, or trying to deal with the person talking. Here are four ways you can truly listen:

• Avoid distractions. This doesn't just mean putting down the Blackberry or closing your web browser. Try not to think about what you're going to say next. Simply focus on what the other person says.
• Listen for content and emotion.  When people are concerned about something and are speaking with you, there is both content (the issue) and emotion (how they're feeling).  Listen for both.  You'll need them in the next step.
• Repeat back by paraphrasing concisely. This sometimes feels silly, but repeating back what you heard - in the form of a clear, concise paraphrase - shows the other person that you're listening and you're getting it.
• Ask thoughtful questions. Ask open-ended questions that help you see the issue more clearly and allow your conversation partner to go deeper into what s/he cares about.

Adapted from "How to Really Listen" by Peter Bregman.

Too Much Information

As a leader, how do you know how much information to share with staff?

When leading a staff, it's always important to keep people informed about what's going on - especially when it may affect them and their work.  This means providing them with the information they need.  Yet not all information is necessary for them.  In fact, some might be just too much.  It can become mental clutter and serve as a distracter. 

How do you know when to share and when to be the gatekeeper and protect your staff from an overabundance of information?  As a leader, you need to know how to determine how much information your staff really wants or needs.  What is important for them to know?  What is less important and might well be best if not shared?  Sometimes in our zeal to be effective with communications, we share too much.  At other times, we may be overly-protective of staff and not share with them information that they may appreciate having. 

How do you achieve the balance?  One effective - but embarrassingly obvious - strategy is simply to ask them.  Ask who might like to serve on a small committee to help determine what's important for everyone to know and what's not essential.  By doing this, you demonstrate a desire to share anything that may be important for your staff while recognizing the need to gatekeep the flow.  Your job on such a committee is always to ask: But if someone wants to know more, how do we still ensure that they have access to it? And then ensure that there are structures in place for those who want more.  Virtually every school/organization has at least a small group of people who enjoy serving as the gatekeepers of information.  As leader, you can benefit from the talents on your staff while ensuring that everyone knows just what they need. 

Leaders as Gatekeepers

As a leader, do you protect your staff from distracters by serving as a gatekeeper?

As a leader, one of the important roles you play is that of gatekeeper.  Every school/organization has an endless number of distracters that can take your staff off course from the core work.  When you serve as a gatekeeper, you keep these distracters at bay so that your staff can focus on the important work they do.  Some distracters are things that come from outside your school/organization.  Others come from higher up in your organization.  Others are brought into your organization by members of staff when they get an idea for something that is of interest to them personally.  Most disturbing is when the leader himself/herself is the one who brings in the distracters. 

As the leader/gatekeeper, it is vital for you to maintain the focus on the work of your school/organization.  You need to filter all distracters to determine if they will support the focus of your work or if they will funnel the energy of your staff into busywork that does not contribute to the fundamental purpose of the work. 

You need to be able to determine just how important that special field trip is to the learning of your students.  You need to be able to sort out which special event  - that uses up instructional time – really serves the learning needs of your students.  Most importantly, you need to be able to engage in dialogue those who bring forward the distracters to find out how the ‘special event’ serves the core business of your school/organization.  Staff may get tired of hearing you ask, “How does this support student learning?” but you need to do it.  If you don’t, you aren’t leading.  Leaders know how to engage people in conversation to sort through what supports the core work of your school/organization and what doesn’t. 

Now that you have the position

You now have the leadership position.  But do you have the skills?

As a leader, you have a formal leadership role.  But formal leadership roles demand a set of skills that you may not necessarily have.  People frequently are promoted because they were exemplary in their position.  However, this doesn't automatically translate into having the skills required in a leadership role.  As a leader, can you identify the necessary skill sets for your position?  When that's done, can you then identify which of these skill sets you have, which skill sets you don't have, and which ones you are developing?  Once this 'gap analysis' has been done, you have some important thinking to do about how you will build the skills that you need in your role.  In other words, what do you need to learn and how will you learn it?  Every great leader is also a great learner.  Leadership demands learning and continual refinement of the skills of leadership.  What is your plan to be a great leader? 

Here is a list of just some of the skill sets that great leaders have:

• setting direction for the work of your staff
• building purposeful, authentic relationships...and then sustaining them
• knowing how to motivate people
• knowing how to handle difficult conversations while maintaining the integrity of staff members
• problem-solving
• supporting each member of your staff in building their capacity to do the work
• coaching and mentoring.....and knowing the difference
• planning for succession and ensuring that there are always others who can carry on the work
• being accountable
• taking responsibility
• identifying the focus of the work and supporting staff in keeping the focus
• dealing with distracters so that they don't impact on your staff
• distributing / sharing leadership with others
• ...and the list goes on....

Being an Enabler

As a leader, how do you serve as an enabler for your staff? 

As a leader, one of your key roles is to serve as an enabler for your staff.  You need to enable your staff to do their work to the best of their ability.  You do this by ensuring they have:

• the tools they need
• the knowledge they need
• the skills they need
• a workplace that supports their mental and emotional well-being
• clarity of purpose in their work
• a belief that their work has value
• freedom from distracters
• protection from activity traps
• easy access to you
• problem-resolving processes
• ...and on the list goes....

This list - and all of the other things that could be added to it - demands a significant skill set on your part.  How do you build and refine the skills you need to be a leader who enables others to do their best work?