“Servant leadership reminds us of the importance of listening, and the practice of mindfulness. In her article, “ Listen to Serve: Servant Leadership and the Practice of Effective Listening,” Jessica Zisa examines the importance of listening in servant leadership and states. One of the foundational elements of servant leadership theory and practice is authentic listening. In a previous article, I shared the importance of fostering a servant leadership approach to interact with and lead others. While the business case for intentional, mindful and compassionate active listening is irrefutable, we should also not forget the many human benefits of helping individuals feel safe being their authentic self as they feel heard, validated, understood and valued. Effective active listening within an organizational setting has been shown to produce a wide range of positive benefits for companies, leaders and individuals, such as: (1) building stronger relationships, (2) developing greater trust, (3) more effective team collaborations, (4) enhanced individual and group decision-making, (5) greater productivity and (6) enhanced creativity and innovation.
The Organizational And Individual BenefitsĪ tremendous amount of research has demonstrated the impact and power of listening. When we actively listen, we practice mindfulness, we are present with those around us and we do not allow distractions to take away our focus on the most impart thing in that moment: seeking understanding, showing compassion and demonstrating empathy. In other words, listening is more than just hearing the words someone is saying, but rather impactful active listening is all about understanding the context in which those words are shared, along with other verbal and nonverbal cues, such as voice inflection, tone, facial expressions and body language.