Listen To The Ideas Of Others

“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen” (Ernest Hemingway)

If you think you know it all, chances are you will be too busy listening to yourself and how great you are to have time to listen to anyone else. Listen to your people in your team. They are the ones who knows to work with the resources and the products. They are the ones at the cutting edge and they may well have ideas, good ideas. Talk to them. Get their feedback, their ideas, their creativity.

But you obviously have to be careful to make sure that although you are listening to them, that doesn’t mean that you are going to act on every one of their ideas. Listen, assimilate and then decide based on what you’ve heard, your own experience and ideas and what is practical.

You have to listen without always giving the signal that you will necessary use their ideas, so then they won’t be disappointed when you do something completely different. But you can make them think their ideas were incorporated into your overall strategy. If you regularly doing this, ask good questions and listen without prejudice, you’re immediately in a different class to most leaders.


source : The Rules of Management – Richard Templar