Mastering Active Listening: A Leadership Guide to Building Trust and Fostering Positive Workplace Culture

With all the information at our fingertips and our inability to be patient or wait for anything, active listening seems to be a dwindling skill. Listening is an essential skill for leaders who want to build strong relationships with their employees and create a positive workplace culture – and who doesn’t want that?

It’s just that it takes time, patience, and practice. Hear me out.

Leaders who actively listen to their employees CAN build trust, improve communication, and create a culture of open dialogue.

Let’s get into some of the ways, YOU, as a leader (irrespective of job title) can act and start developing this skill today. It first starts with you being present.

Be present. Active listening requires you to be fully present and focused on the conversation in front of you. (Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it?) Now the hard part, getting present means putting away, silencing, or turning off/ down your cell phone (PRO TIP: put it out of sight, desk drawer, pocket, etc.) Silence, or close your laptop. This will allow you to be fully present and helps the employee feel heard and valued, fostering a positive relationship between leader and employee. There is nothing worse than sitting in a one-on-one with a manager you’re trying to connect with and they’re constantly excusing their behaviour or checking/ reading the emails on the screen behind you – ugh. Sometimes the receiving end just wants to yell – I am right here…!

Listen without interrupting. Again, I know, it’s a lot easier said than done. However, the challenge is to try doing this as the leader. Interrupting an employee can be seen as dismissive and disrespectful. Consider listening to the employees’ entire message before responding or thinking about your response and avoid interrupting or finishing their sentences. The goal here is to allow the employee to fully express themselves – yes, their thoughts and their feelings, which can lead to a more productive conversation. This is a skill, which means it can be learned. However, combine this with emotional intelligence and you will be unstoppable (more posts on this to come).

Ask open ended questions. Using these intentionally you can encourage employees to share more detailed and thoughtful responses. Here are some to get you started:

On a scale of 1-10 how are you feeling today? Why?

Can you tell me more about that?

How did that make you feel?

These questions help you better understand where the person is coming from, their perspective, and allows you to build trust and respect.

Empathy. Ah emotional intelligence. Acknowledge their perspective and feelings. That sounds difficult or frustrating. There are so many benefits to displaying empathy and I am confident it will lead to more positive and productive conversations in the end.

Paraphrasing. This is a technique used to reiterate to the employee in your own words what you heard. It further supports your understanding of the conversation and shows the employee that they are understood. This can help avoid misunderstandings and confusion and results in more productive conversations.

Take Notes. So that you can remember important details of the conversation. It shows the employee that what they have to say is important and demonstrated engagement from your end. PRO TIP: to further build the relationship, keep your one-on-one notes for each employee separate and refer to them the next time you meet. The employee will feel valued and appreciate you re-visiting previous conversations to help them along the way.

Ask what the employee needs. As a leader, we can often feel the overwhelming pressure of having to fix and be and do everything for everyone. I disagree. And really, we’re human, we can’t be and do everything for everyone nor should you try.

What you CAN do is offer a safe space for your employees to thrive. In this type of conversation, it’s ok to ask the employee what they need from you. Sometimes it’s just to process their feelings so that they can move on – great, nothing else needed from you. If it’s more, be sure to get clear on what they expect from you and do your best to deliver on it. If you can’t, loop back in with the employee so they know you are unable to deliver on it for x,y,z reasons.

We are confident in taking these steps, you will build trust TENFOLD.  

All in all, active listening can help build strong relationships and create a culture of open communication and mutual respect. We think these tips go far beyond the workplace, too!

What do you think? Have you tried these active listening tips? What worked what didn’t? We’d love to hear from you!