{"id":10887,"date":"2017-07-19T19:17:21","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T00:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trainingmag.com\/front-line-management-101-listen-stop-talking-listen\/"},"modified":"2017-07-19T19:17:21","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T00:17:21","slug":"front-line-management-101-listen-stop-talking-listen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trainingmag.com\/front-line-management-101-listen-stop-talking-listen\/","title":{"rendered":"Front-Line Management 101: Listen. Stop Talking. Listen."},"content":{"rendered":"

When was the last time you listened to your employees? Really listened\u2014when you weren\u2019t thinking about how to respond, what task to do next, or when to get to the next meeting?<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter if you are managing one employee or 100. Listening is the No. 1 task you must do as a manager. All other activities tie into it. When I was in the military, it was how I learned the ways my sailors were unique\u2014and how they each could contribute to our ship\u2019s goals. When I was in a corporate office, it was how I learned how to challenge employees whose ages ranged from 20s to 60s.<\/p>\n

Why listen? When you were an individual contributor, your focus was on accomplishing your own goals. As a manager, your focus is on accomplishing your team\u2019s goals\u2014which will help you accomplish your goals. How do you know if you are getting your goals accomplished if you don\u2019t listen to the people doing the work?<\/p>\n

Here are a few ways to listen more:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Focus: No distractions<\/strong>\u2014no phones, laptops, interruptions.<\/strong> If you do get interrupted, find another time to meet.<\/li>\n
  2. Talk the least:<\/strong> If a conversation is 10 minutes, aim to speak less than half of that time\u2014ideally 25 percent or less. You don\u2019t have all the answers. Find out if they do.<\/li>\n
  3. Go into \u201creceive-only mode\u201d:<\/strong> Recognize who the \u201cleader\u201d is in the conversation\u2014and let them guide the conversation while you visually show you are listening.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Have other ways to listen to your team? E-mail: ashley@squarepegsolutions.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    When was the last time you listened to your employees? Really listened\u2014when you weren\u2019t thinking about how to respond, what task to do next, or when to get to the next meeting?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[18],"class_list":{"0":"post-10887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-magazine","7":"tag-training-today","8":"magazine_issues-july-2017"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFront-Line Management 101: Listen. Stop Talking. Listen.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/trainingmag.com\/front-line-management-101-listen-stop-talking-listen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Front-Line Management 101: Listen. Stop Talking. Listen.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When was the last time you listened to your employees? 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