(Expansion) – Despite the fact that there are different industries, different sizes of organizations, as well as different ways of running a corporation, there is a consensus between the characteristics that the best business leaders share. On this occasion I would like to focus on the value of seeking and listening to the voices of our employees and the rest of the leadership team.
Active listening is the most effective tool to avoid bias in communication, it allows us to discover new ways of thinking, in addition to understanding the reality of some situations that our colleagues may experience.
The pandemic has shown that this listening is critical. 86% of companies mention that they have radically changed the way they do it; similarly, he declares having participated in authentic conversations throughout the past year.
With the passage of this health emergency, many workers migrated to remote work schemes and, without a doubt, effective listening allowed leaders to learn about some of the concerns of their collaborators, such as conflicts over time between work-family, extreme tiredness, as well as some disagreements in his interpersonal relationships with his office colleagues.
By asking the right questions, using the right methods, and knowing when to listen, you can reap the benefits that come from truly knowing what issues are most relevant to your workforce.
However, although at first it may seem like a simple activity, securing your workforce and making them feel heard requires an empathetic approach, as it is important to develop non-intrusive ways in which people can participate through passive and active listening. , thus facilitating significant human contact, creating communication channels that are always kept open.
On the other hand, it is more important than ever to consider the diversity of our collaborators and the different types of individuals and roles within the organization, since the success of communication will depend on this.
New and innovative approaches include digital focus groups, always-on platforms, and roaming pulse surveys. These new disclosure channels are combined with meetings as well as hypothesis testing (using behavioral data that compares what people say with what they actually do).
When done right, these activities generate predictive models that can inform a variety of important workforce outcomes; for example, predicting when they might leave the company, need to move, be at risk of burnout, etc.
In a practical way, effective listening programs shine for their innovation and organizational learning, they create trust and improve people’s feelings of security, additionally, they create a collective commitment to change and although it is true, at this moment we do not live In times as changeable as at the beginning of the pandemic, when the disruption arrives, leaders who have truly listened will be able to provide their organization with valuable structure and support in times of change.
Editor’s Note: Gerardo García Rojas is a Career Leader for Mercer Mexico. Follow him on . The opinions published in this column belong exclusively to the author.
