The Greatest Mistake – Listening – Part 2

By far, the greatest mistake young leaders make is to do more talking than listening. After all, it’s not what you know but what you don’t know that has the power to change your life. Think about it… if what you knew had the power to change your life, then you’d already be different!

Unfortunately, too many of us, as leaders, make the fatal mistake of having an opportunity to listen and missing it. Here are a few ways I “actively listen.”

1. Recognize that everyone is deep well. When we work under the assumption that every person we meet has the power to teach us something, it changes everything. Suddenly, the world becomes our classroom, and perfect strangers become our teachers.

2. It’s up to us to mine out the gold. Just because people are a deep well, doesn’t mean we have instant access to the gold within them. Most of the time the responsibility falls on us to mine it out creatively.

3. Have a few pre-loaded questions ready at any time. Since you never know when a listening opportunity may hit, it’s essential to have a few great questions in your hip pocket. For me, I love:

• “Where are you winning right now?”
• “Where are you struggling?” &
• “What have you learning in the last week?”

These 3 almost always lead to invigorating discussion. Don’t make the mistake of missing an opportunity to learn because you weren’t prepared.

Just a bloggish thought,

Matt