In a recent review, Avraham Kluger and Guy Itzchakov synthesized the results of more than 120 scholarly publications on listening. Here are some of the research team's most important findings about the benefits of listening at work:
• Listening is linked to better organizational citizenship. Karina Lloyd and her colleagues conducted a study in which they asked employees to weigh in on how good their supervisor is at listening. It turns out that supervisors who listen well are more likely to inspire people to defend the company when it faces criticism. Employees who had supervisors who listened well were more likely to independently come up with ways to improve work. Not only that, these bosses were also more likely to inspire their employees to want to continue working at the company.
• Listening is linked to better learning. It will not come as a surprise to you that good listeners learn better. What might be more interesting is what, exactly, good listeners are learning at work. In addition to learning concepts, skills, and information, good listeners are better at avoiding trouble and office politics! They are also more likely to have more balanced perspectives. In a 2017 study, good listeners were more likely than their poor listening counterparts to be open to considering the pros and cons of a point of view.
• Poor listening is problematic. In one study, for example, poor listening was linked to a variety of disruptive behaviors experienced by nurses. These included sexual harassment, being insulted, being gossiped about, being scapegoated, and having their authority undermined, among others.
Taken together, these studies point to an inescapable conclusion. Namely, that listening is important to work. Avraham Kluger and Guy Itzchakov up the ante on that notion by stating it in stronger terms: "listening is arguably a facet of job performance even if it is not perceived or measured as such by organizations" (p. 127). The good news is that Radical Listening is likely to have a positive impact on your professional and personal life.
SUMMARY
Historically, advocates for better listening have focused on so-called "active listening." People who are trained in this approach typically maintain eye contact, check in with the speaker to ensure their meaning has been conveyed accurately, and use the speaker's language. These can lead to better attention and comprehension and can demonstrate investment in the conversation. Radical Listening builds on this and extends it. The major points of departure are
twofold: First, Radical Listening places a heavy emphasis on your intention for listening. Instead of treating listening as a singular conversational skill, we position it as an orientation to interacting. This means that great listeners modify their style depending on their listening intention. They notice and convey different things in conversations in which they want to connect, argue, learn, or entertain. The second departure that makes this approach radical is its emphasis on a wide range of internal and external listening skills. The most counterintuitive of these are questioning and interjection. In both cases, the listener interrupts the flow of the conversation. It would be fair to propose that such interruptions could lead to doubt about whether the person is really listening. However, we argue that these skills demonstrate unusually high conversational engagement and can lead to improved interactions.
QUESTIONS
1. What stands out to you as the most radical idea presented in this chapter?
2. What have you noticed in your own life about the benefits of listening well to others?
3. What will you do differently when listening to people as a result of reading this chapter?
CHAPTER TWO
INTENTION
We start with a provocation: the best listening is proactive, not reactive. The traditional view of listening is that it is a receptive activity. As soon as someone starts speaking, it can seem like they are in "broadcasting mode" and that we should be in "receiving mode." It is easy to assume that we should be like sponges, trying to absorb what is being said. To the extent that we have any choice of what to do as a listener, it appears to be a narrow selection between listening and not listening. In truth, listeners should be much more than sponges. That metaphor suggests that the sponge is passive and singular in its ability. Namely, sponges soak up liquid. Perhaps a more fruitful alternative is to describe listening like being hungry. The process requires a person to eat food but does not place limits on when to eat, how much to eat, or what type of food is consumed. Each meal is distinct and, as we shall see, each listening session is unique too.
PROFESSIONAL LISTENERS
There are numerous professional roles in society that require us to listen in particular ways: therapists, customer service staff, nurses, doctors, coaches, lawyers, journalists, teachers, ombudsmen, librarians, air traffic controllers, intelligence officers, orchestra conductors, and salespeople, to name a few. People in these fields are required to listen effectively to do their jobs well.
Although they all have listening in common, it is relatively easy to see that there are slight variations in their purposes:
• Therapists and coaches use listening to understand a person's problems or perspective. They also use listening to build trusting relationships and demonstrate empathy.
• Nurses and doctors listen to understand the needs of their patients and to diagnose illnesses.
• Teachers listen to determine what their students have understood and what they still need to learn.
• Customer service staff listen so that clients feel heard and so that they can resolve complaints.
• Lawyers listen to gather information to assess the merits of a case and to develop effective arguments.
• Journalists listen to gather information to write accurate and engaging articles.
• Salespeople listen to understand their customers' needs and offer customized solutions or products.
