Detective Listening - A Leadership Skill
Know the Pulse of your Team (2 Step Exercise)
Knowing the pulse of your team means listening to your teammates, colleagues, management, and staff to understand what they are thinking and feeling.
If you want to excel as a sports captain, a director, a founder, a leader, then you need to consistently gauge the mood and morale of your team through active listening. By becoming a "detective listener," you will be able to discover the health of your team - their concerns, their celebrations, their worries, their joys. By the end of this drill, you will know the first steps you need to take to help your team be at their best.
Why is this important?
Just as you need to be fit and healthy to compete at the peak of a sport - your team needs to be healthy and strong to perform at its peak. By knowing the heartbeat of your team and how the puzzle pieces are working together, you can be best informed to create the fittest and most effective team possible.
Red Flags
Be cautious of these red flags: being in your own bubble, only listening to certain members of your team, ignoring the feedback you learn, assuming you already know everything about the pulse of your team.
How can you apply this?
Step 1- Select:
Pick three random people who are involved with your team. For example, if you are captain of a sports team, you could speak to;
A teammate
A member of the coaching staff
A member of the support staff
Step 2 - Listen:
Make time to have a conversation with them and ask how they think the team is doing.
For example, you can ask them 'What is our team doing well at the moment?' and 'What could our team do better?' and 'What is frustrating you at the moment?'
Your aim is to be a caring, active listener who wants to know how to support your team.
Be a listening detective.
The more information you have the more effective you will be. Consistently listening to your teammates, employees, peers and staff builds trust and gives you an understanding of the pulse of your team. As you build this leadership skill into a habit, you will be able to understand which pieces of the puzzle need to be tweaked and shaped so your team can performance at its best.
Tools:
Leadership
Emotional Intelligence