The Value of Listening

I am through the first half of John C. Maxwell’s book, Becoming a Person of Influence, in which Maxwell breaks down his four levels for positively impacting the lives of others.

Level 1: Modeling

Level 2: Motivating

Level 3: Mentoring

Level 4: Multiplying

Diving a bit deeper into Level 2: Motivating

You become a motivating influencer when you encourage people and communicate with them on an emotional level. I really think that the emotional aspect of things is what gets people to move – whether it be toward a buying decision or a decision to create a relationship with someone. If you cannot reach someone emotionally, you will experience merely transactional relationship results – and you certainly won’t be able to exert any influence.

Within the motivating section, Maxwell unpacked the value of listening. Just about everyone would say that listening is important, but very few are actually good at it. Maxwell cited a noteworthy statistic from author and researcher John Hayes:

When it comes to daily communication, we spend about 45% of our day listening.

With a statistic like that, it certainly pays to be good at listening. Maxwell shared six values you get from listening:

1.    Listening shows respect.

2.    Listening builds relationships.

3.    Listening increases knowledge.

4.    Listening generates ideas.

5.    Listening builds loyalty.

6.    Listening is a great way to help others and yourself.

I have been blessed in my life with the willingness to just listen to people. Much of this comes from my military officer training, where my job was to command the battlefield – to maneuver forces on the battlefield to destroy the enemy. And many times, I had to acutely listen to those soldiers in the fight to know precisely what was transpiring. I was not always physically there to see it with my own eyes. I often had to envision and interpret the battlefield without being there – this necessitated the skill of listening to be able to catch all of the nuances shared and to also put together a picture of what was NOT told to achieve mission success.

I have used that skill in my business experiences, as well. Taking in all of the information gained by listening to people in the field, listening to customers, listening to experts who share data and lessons learned and future hypotheses are all crucial to productive idea generation. Truly listening and digesting information from others can produce ideas you can use to take better care of your people, tools to inspire innovation in your business, and even new ways to sell more. The value offered by this idea generation is so great that you should be immediately motivated to go listen more.

It was Abraham Lincoln who once said, “When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two-thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one-third thinking about what I want to say.” Lincoln was one of the best communicators this world has ever seen. So, if he spent most of his time thinking about what mattered to others, then we, as leaders, should seek to do the same.

I implore you –do not be the leader who walks around and talks AT everybody, barking orders and acting like a know-it-all. Be the leader who listens.  

Written by Schuyler Williamson

REALTOR. Leader. Veteran. Business Owner. Investor.

Weekly Email List: https://www.schuylerwilliamson.com/weekly-leader-note

God Bless!

~ Schuyler Williamson