Listening for Managers: How to Lead More Effectively Through Good Listening Skills 3662676230, 9783662676233

Table of contents :
What You Can Find in This essential
Contents
About the Authors
1 Introduction: Why good listening is so important for leaders
2 What good listening specifically means
2.1 Entering conversations with the right attitude
2.2 Doing something with what is heard
3 How leaders can implement good listening in their daily practice
3.1 Creating the right conditions for good listening
3.2 Practicing good listening in typical conversation situations
3.3 Gathering feedback
4 How to succeed in good listening when working from home and in online meetings
4.1 Contact management under working-from-home conditions
4.2 Rules for online meetings
5 How organizations can be designed to promote listening
5.1 The climate in an organization
5.2 Working conditions of leaders
5.3 Training good listening
What you can take away from this essential
References

Citation preview

Alexander Häfner · Sophie Hofmann

Listening for Managers How to Lead More Effectively Through Good Listening Skills

essentials

Springer essentials

Springer essentials provide up-to-date knowledge in a concentrated form. They aim to deliver the essence of what counts as “state-of-the-art” in the current academic discussion or in practice. With their quick, uncomplicated and comprehensible information, essentials provide: • an introduction to a current issue within your field of expertise • an introduction to a new topic of interest • an insight, in order to be able to join in the discussion on a particular topic Available in electronic and printed format, the books present expert knowledge from Springer specialist authors in a compact form. They are particularly suitable for use as eBooks on tablet PCs, eBook readers and smartphones. Springer essentials form modules of knowledge from the areas economics, social sciences and humanities, technology and natural sciences, as well as from medicine, psychology and health professions, written by renowned Springer-authors across many disciplines.

Alexander Häfner · Sophie Hofmann

Listening for Managers How to Lead More Effectively Through Good Listening Skills

Alexander Häfner Personalentwicklung, Würth Industrie Service GmbH & Co. KG Bad Mergentheim, Germany

Sophie Hofmann Personalentwicklung, Würth Industrie Service GmbH & Co. KG Bad Mergentheim, Germany

ISSN 2197-6708 ISSN 2197-6716  (electronic) essentials ISSN 2731-3107 ISSN 2731-3115  (electronic) Springer essentials ISBN 978-3-662-67623-3 ISBN 978-3-662-67624-0  (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-67624-0 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature. The registered company address is: Heidelberger Platz 3, 14197 Berlin, Germany

What You Can Find in This essential

• In this essential, we explain why good listening is an important leadership skill. • Using examples and practical tips, we illustrate how good listening can be achieved in daily leadership work. • We address the particular challenges for good listening posed by increased work from home and the often high number of online meetings. • In addition to suggestions for direct leadership work, we provide recommendations for designing organizational framework conditions to promote good listening in companies.

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Contents

1 Introduction: Why good listening is so important for leaders . . . . . . . 1 2 What good listening specifically means. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2.1 Entering conversations with the right attitude. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.2 Doing something with what is heard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 3 How leaders can implement good listening in their daily practice. . . . 19 3.1 Creating the right conditions for good listening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 3.2 Practicing good listening in typical conversation situations . . . . . . . 26 3.3 Gathering feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 4 How to succeed in good listening when working from home and in online meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 4.1 Contact management under working-from-home conditions . . . . . . 37 4.2 Rules for online meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 5 How organizations can be designed to promote listening. . . . . . . . . . . 43 5.1 The climate in an organization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 5.2 Working conditions of leaders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 5.3 Training good listening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

VII

About the Authors

Dr. Alexander Häfner has been Head of Human Resources Development at Würth Industrie Service since 2012 and is a member of the Board of the Economic Psychology Section of the BDP. His main tasks include training and consulting leaders at various hierarchical levels. Würth Industrie Service GmbH & Co. KG, Drillberg, 97980 Bad Mergentheim. [email protected]. Sophie Hofmann is a psychologist and an expert in international leadership development at Würth. Her main tasks include the development and implementation of e-learning offerings, face-to-face trainings, and leader coaching. Würth Industrie Service GmbH & Co. KG, Drillberg, 97980 Bad Mergentheim. [email protected]

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Introduction: Why good listening is so important for leaders

“Good listening can’t be that difficult. I just listen to what my counterpart has to say. That’s really nothing special. Why should I even deal with this topic?” You may have had similar thoughts when you picked up this essential. In this chapter, we explain that good listening is unfortunately not a matter of course, that we easily overestimate our abilities in this regard, and what positive effects good listening can have. Ellinger et al. (2003) surveyed leaders on how often they ask questions to their employees. We understand asking questions as an important aspect of good listening. Almost as an invitation to the employee to share their thoughts and thus as a starting point for good listening. In the study, the leaders stated that they would ask questions quite frequently. Interestingly, the employees perceived this quite differently. The authors found a considerable difference in the perception of leaders and those being led. Whether and how often questions are asked in a conversation should actually be easily assessable for both sides. Leaders and employees should come to a similar assessment. The study shows that the respective subjective perceptions can differ significantly. A study with students confirms the assumption that self-assessment and external assessment diverge widely when it comes to the quality of listening (Bodie et al., 2014). In fact, there seems to be no connection between the assessment by the listener (e.g., the leader) and the speaker (e.g., an employee) (Bodie et al., 2014). There is also no connection between the listener’s assessment and that of third parties (e.g., colleagues who follow a conversation) (Bodie et al., 2014). Unfortunately, our self-assessment seems to have nothing to do with the external assessment by our conversation partners. Itzchakov and Kluger (2017) also pointed out this problem.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 A. Häfner and S. Hofmann, Listening for Managers, Springer essentials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-67624-0_1

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1  Introduction: Why good listening is so important for leaders

For practice, this is a highly relevant finding. As leaders, we must not assume that our self-assessment is correct and that we actually listen as well as we might assume. How well do I actually listen? How can I improve if necessary? These two questions are at the center of this essential. In Chaps. 2, 3 and 4 we address this after having worked out the relevance of good listening in the first chapter. In Chap. 5 we describe approaches to designing organizations in such a way that good listening is promoted as much as possible. As a continuous case study, we accompany team leader Michaela through her daily work routine in this essential. Example: listening often falls short in everyday work

Michaela always has very packed days. One meeting follows another. In between, there are phone calls and emails. When she talks to her employees, she tries to convey her ideas as briefly and precisely as possible. It has to be quick. The next appointment is already breathing down her neck. Most of her employees work from home, so direct, personal conversations are rare. When her employees have questions or start to make longer statements, Michaela notices a certain restlessness in herself. Again and again, she is also annoyed. She wants to move on to the next point as quickly as possible. Sometimes she gets angry with herself when she notices how her thoughts are already on the next topic. It also happens to her that she has to ask again: “What did you just say? Can you repeat the last point once more?” Often, she processes her emails during a phone call. Somehow she experiences this as exhausting, but also very efficient. Every minute counts. ◄ Michaela has many topics on her mind at the same time that occupy her. In addition, she experiences strong time pressure. The physical distance to her employees also acts as a barrier to good listening. Michaela’s situation combines several aspects that make good listening difficult (Van Quaquebeke & Felps, 2016). But is this even a problem? Isn’t the demand for good listening leaders too socially romantic and idealistically humanistic? Sounds good, but doesn’t really fit into our fast, efficiencydriven working world. Why should companies afford leaders who listen well?

1  Introduction: Why good listening is so important for leaders

Overview of arguments for the importance of good listening

• Companies must constantly adapt quickly: good listening makes this easier It is a truism that companies must quickly adapt to changing conditions and, even better, anticipate or drive possible market changes themselves. For this, top management relies on, for example, middle management to contribute their ideas. The willingness to listen at the top management level contributes to middle management leaders submitting proposals on strategic topics (Dutton et al., 1997). • Innovations emerge in a climate of listening More than ever, many companies rely on creative performance. In appreciative, trusting interactions, ideas can be introduced without fear and jointly developed further in fruitful exchange (Rouse, 2020). Listening well to each other is an important aspect. Those who listen to others without judgment and with interest can create a climate of safety and thus promote creative performance (Rouse, 2020). Castro et al. (2018) report a considerable correlation between listening and creative performance. They show that good listening on the part of leaders is associated with the experience of psychological safety on the part of employees and, through this, with the creative performance of employees. • Leaders who listen well can benefit from their own development Leaders who want to develop their leadership skills should not do without the feedback of their employees. Who can better help with one’s own development than one’s own team? No coach, no other leaders experiences us as leaders in as many leadership situations as our team. A great source for feedback. Those who listen well can obtain external perspectives, compare them with their self-image, and derive improvements from them. There is evidence that good listening stimulates critical self-reflection (Itzchakov et al., 2017). • Good listening has various positive effects on those being led Numerous studies suggest positive effects of good listening on important variables in the work context (Kluger & Itzchakov, 2022): performance, relationship quality, job satisfaction, employee retention, and well-being. Those who experience good listening feel less anxious and gain more clarity about their views (Itzchakov et al., 2018).

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1  Introduction: Why good listening is so important for leaders

• To avoid unwanted resignations, you must listen to your employees For companies, it is essential not to lose high performers. The competition for workers has been intensifying for years. Leaders who do not have an open ear for the concerns of their employees must increasingly expect unwanted resignations. Effective retention talks are unimaginable without good listening (Häfner & Truschel, 2022). • Good listening is also good for the well-being of the listener Interestingly, there are findings that suggest that good listeners experience less anxiety in critical conversation situations (e.g., a customer complains) and perceive themselves as more competent (Itzchakov, 2020). Being able to listen well is discussed as a buffer against stress (Itzchakov, 2020).

The arguments presented demonstrate that good listening is a very important leadership skill, especially for the present and future. Some of the topics mentioned, such as employee retention, innovation, and change, seem to be gaining even more relevance. For example, in 2005, with nearly 5 million job seekers in Germany, it may have been less important to know and address the needs of employees than with approximately 2.5 million job seekers in the summer of 2022. Nowadays, job postings receive significantly fewer applications than in 2005. This makes it even more important to conduct retention talks instead of job interviews (Häfner & Truschel, 2022). Many signs indicate that this situation will continue to intensify. Good listening is thus becoming an existential issue for companies. In the following, we will delve deeper into the arguments by examining further research. Van Quaquebeke and Felps (2016) assume that listening in conjunction with open-ended questions satisfies employees’ needs for autonomy, connectedness, and competence, and, mediated by increased motivation and job satisfaction, is positively related to performance and employee retention. Those who ask open-ended questions and listen well receive more information, can take this into account when making decisions, secure acceptance for decisions, and can expect to build positive working relationships (Van Quaquebeke & Felps, 2016). Lloyd et al. (2015) also identify good listening as the basis for stable and positive relationships between managers and employees. They describe good listening as the driving force for relationship building. Studies confirm the connection between good listening and trust (e.g., Lloyd et al., 2015).

1  Introduction: Why good listening is so important for leaders

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Since at least the mid-1990s, the coaching concept has found its way into the description of the leadership role (Ellinger et al., 2003). The manager is described as a kind of coach, or it is argued that certain attitudes and techniques from coaching are helpful for managers. Asking questions in conjunction with attentive listening is part of the standard repertoire. Especially in times when employees experience uncertainties, good listening seems to act as an important buffer to reduce stress. Good listening strengthens the sense of control on the part of employees and thus contributes to a stronger sense of security (Kriz et al., 2021a). The authors argue that good listening serves as a signal of appreciation, helping employees gain more clarity about the current situation and their personal circumstances, experience more control, and become more aware of their own resources. The described relationships also exist in the opposite direction. Employees who feel that they are not being listened to well report negative emotions, increased emotional exhaustion, and stronger intentions to leave (Lloyd et al., 2014). The authors argue that poor listening leads to employees not daring to address problems or share concerns. They perceive their leader as unreachable and feel discouraged. There is much to suggest that good listeners make better leaders (e.g., Arendt et al., 2019; Kluger & Itzchakov, 2022). A good reason for leaders to engage with this topic. Especially since we probably listen worse than we currently believe. So, let’s tap into our potential as good listeners.

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What good listening specifically means

Good listening is much more than sitting silently opposite your conversation partner. But what exactly does good listening mean? In Fig. 2.1, we provide a systematic overview of the attitude, behaviors, and direct effects of good listening. In Fig. 2.1, we refer to the effects that can be expected immediately in the conversation. We have compiled all the contents of the illustration from the sources to which we refer in this chapter. A scientifically based description of good listening can also be found in Itzchakov (2020, p. 939). McNaughton et al. (2008, pp. 224, 225) suggest four different steps as a framework for designing good listening. Slightly modified, we recommend the following approach based on this: 1) Show empathy and respect; let the concern/topic be described 2) Ask open questions and take notes 3) Summarize what has been heard and jointly reflect on whether I, as a listener, have understood the content correctly 4) Agree on further action together In this chapter, we focus in detail on the right attitude for good listening and on the question of what is done with what has been heard by the manager. Thus, we do not focus on specific behaviors (e.g., asking open questions) but on two other aspects that are particularly important for successful listening.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 A. Häfner and S. Hofmann, Listening for Managers, Springer essentials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-67624-0_2

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2.1 Entering conversations with the right attitude Good listening first requires the right attitude. It is about how a manager enters conversations with their employees. Example: The appropriate attitude as a basis for good listening

Michaela is having an important conversation with her employee Sandra today. Sandra has repeatedly mentioned that she is overwhelmed with her tasks. Everything is becoming too much for her. She urgently wants to hand over some tasks. Michaela wants Sandra to be able to do her work in a healthy and satisfied manner. She wants to take Sandra’s signals seriously and work out a solution together with her. She is very interested in how Sandra is doing, which tasks she finds particularly stressful, and what could help her to improve her experience of stress. ◄ Michaela enters the conversation with a strong interest in Sandra’s situation. In addition, she would like to support her employee. Both are essential prerequisites for good listening (see Fig. 2.1). The outlined attitude is reflected in observable behavior but is more than the sum of individual behaviors. Good listening is

Attitude • Strong interest in the statements of the interlocutor • Openness to the ideas, views, concerns, etc. of the interlocutor • Focusing attention on the conversation • Sensitivity to the expectations of the counterpart in the conversation • Equality of the interlocutors • Willingness to support the interlocutor • Appreciation • Empathy • Nonjudgmental

Behavior

Effects

• Ask open and good questions • Let the conversation partner finish speaking • Encouraging tone • Eye contact • Facial expressions and gestures appropriate to the content of the conversation • Head nod • Encouragement to tell more • Refer to what has been said • Restraint in interpretations and conclusions • Check understanding • Verbalize feelings • Give good reasons for rejection of requests • Respond to the expectations of the interlocutor • Make suitable suggestions • Take action based on what you hear

• Ideas, perspectives, concerns, etc. are expressed openly • Something can be developed together • Positive emotions/well-being are induced • Mutual trust is fostered • More clarity emerges regarding one's own views • Less fear and more psychological security • Self-worth is promoted • Experience more controll • Change of perspective and mutual understanding are facilitated • Differentiated perspectives are encouraged

Fig. 2.1   Characteristics of good listening and its immediate effects

2.1  Entering conversations with the right attitude

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perceived by the conversation partner as a kind of overall impression (Kluger & Itzchakov, 2022). Example: A good fit of attitude and behavior

Michaela has scheduled extra time for the conversation. She does not want to be under time pressure. She has reserved a room specifically to talk undisturbed with Sandra. She has prepared some questions to learn a lot about Sandra. On her notepad, she has written: “Since when has the situation been so stressful for you?”, “What has changed?”, “Where do you see the causes for your high workload?”, “What have you already tried?”, “What would help you?”, “What can I contribute to improve the situation?”. In the conversation, Michaela manages to focus her attention on Sandra, initiate solution-oriented thought processes in Sandra through her questions, and jointly develop solutions that she documents directly and makes available to Sandra afterwards. One concrete measure, for example, is that Sandra delegates a rather simple, frequently recurring task to the intern. Michaela takes on the task of clarifying an issue with another department that Sandra experiences as very burdensome. Michaela takes care of it immediately after the conversation. At the end of the conversation, Michaela asks how Sandra is doing now and how she looks at the coming days. Sandra says that she hopes the agreements made will help. She already feels a little less stressed. Once a week, Michaela and Sandra reflect together on further developments in order to take additional measures if necessary. Sandra experiences a lot of support from her manager. ◄ This coherent combination of attitude and behavior creates the special quality of good listening. Michaela shows strong interest and contributes significantly to the design of a trusting conversation. She wants to help her employee. This results in direct effects, such as concrete solutions and positive emotions in Sandra. Kriz et al. (2021b) conducted 41 interviews with employees. They had practical situations described in which the interviewees had the impression that leaders listened well or poorly to them. Based on the case descriptions, the authors extracted characteristics that distinguish good and bad listening from the perspective of the employees. From the results, the authors concluded that good listening is primarily about employees experiencing genuine interest in their needs and expectations and that leaders do something with what they hear after the conversation. We will concretize these two central points in the further course of this chapter.

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In our case example, Michaela brings a lot of interest in her employee’s situation and asks appropriate, open questions. It is very likely that Sandra perceives these questions as sincere. Whether she considers her leader a good listener, however, also depends heavily on the solutions developed in the conversation and whether Michaela takes action after the conversation, as agreed. Interrupting employees, cutting them off in conversation, being distracted during the conversation, or superficiality in conversation (e.g., clichéd reactions) are highly likely to lead to a negative perception of the quality of listening (Kriz et al., 2021b). These points are certainly very plausible, but not so easy to implement in practice.  Tip  Put your smartphone aside during conversations. Make sure that your attention is not distracted by other devices (e.g., tablet on the table, open laptop) or people (e.g., colleagues in the office).

If you implement this tip, you will notice that you are more present in your conversations, that you gain more clarity in your thoughts, and achieve better conversation results. You will overall listen better. From a psychological perspective, these effects are very likely. For practice, these considerations are highly relevant. Imagine a manager who, due to various distractions in conversations, only gets half of the information. How can good decisions be made on this basis? How can a respectful interaction be achieved? For good listening, the targeted use of specific techniques, such as eye contact or nodding, is not that important (Kriz et al., 2021b). Kriz et al. (2021b) emphasize how important, on the other hand, the inner attitude towards the conversation partner is. We seem to perceive whether someone is sincerely listening to us or whether certain conversation techniques are being applied mechanistically. If genuine interest is lacking, then such behaviors are exposed as contrived techniques. From this perspective, trainings that focus solely on practicing specific techniques could even do more harm than good. Therefore, we highly recommend that you focus more on your own attitude than on specific behaviors. Of course, you can commit to asking at least two open questions in every conversation. We do not want to discourage you from trying out such behaviors. However, first and foremost, we would like to invite you to engage intensively with your inner attitude with which you enter conversations with your employees. We have summarized central aspects of a supportive inner attitude in Fig. 2.1. It is mainly about giving our full attention to our conversation partner, being sensitive to their needs and concerns, and showing appreciation.

2.1  Entering conversations with the right attitude

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In our book, we repeatedly address the importance of inner attitude. Anyone who wants to become a better listener as a leader should primarily work on their inner attitude. Questions for reflecting on your own attitude

• How much do I enjoy talking to my employees? Do I see conversations as a valuable part of my leadership role or rather as a bothersome necessity? • Do I give my employees my full attention during conversations? • How interested am I in other opinions, concerns, and ideas? • How well do I perceive what my employees need from me as a manager? • How much appreciation do I show to my conversation partners? • How sensitive am I to the expectations of my conversation partners regarding the conversation (even if they are not openly stated)? • How important is it for me to support my employees well? The question of attitude touches on my self-concept as a leader. It is about being interested in the expectations that employees associate with the conversation and taking the needs that become apparent in the conversation seriously. Whether leaders meet the expectations of their employees in a conversation is essential for assessing the quality of listening (Kriz et al., 2021b). This does not mean that I, as a leader, can fulfill all the wishes of my employees. Certainly not. It will often be necessary to negotiate compromises or even reject wishes with good reasoning. The key point is: no rejection without justification! With what attitude do I fulfill my leadership role? The appropriate attitude of the listener can be described as appreciative and empathetic, non-judgmental, caring, and accepting of the other person (Arendt et al., 2019; Lloyd et al., 2016). This promotes psychological safety in the conversation partner and creates a space for openness and the emergence of creative achievements (Rouse, 2020). If you now object that this attitude in dealing with each other should be selfevident, then please remember a meeting in which the statements of colleagues have triggered head shaking, heavy breathing, eye rolling, or other signs of lack of appreciation in others. Or perhaps a meeting in which you have experienced that the conversation partners deliberately do not want to understand each other, devalue the statements of others, elevate themselves at the expense of others, and mutually attribute base motives. You probably can think of such situations. None of us is immune to falling into such traps. Especially when we experience stress, such behavior patterns can occur.

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 Tip  Do not let yourself be negatively influenced by others. If devaluation spirals start in meetings, then counteract them or stay out of it.

Since the appropriate attitude is the crucial prerequisite for good listening, we weave in a short digression on the topic of attitudes at this point. The explanations contain some background information that should facilitate your reflection and, if necessary, further development of your attitudes. What is meant by attitudes? It is about our attitudes, beliefs, convictions and our mindset. Certainly, distinctions can be made between the terms. However, we use these terms as synonyms. When we evaluate events, interpret the behavior of our employees, or make decisions, our attitudes serve as a compass. This applies, of course, to many aspects of our lives. We refer explicitly to our qualities as listeners in the following.

Overview of aspects of a helpful mindset for good listening

• • • • • •

“It is important that I take an interest in the concerns of my employees.” “A good leader takes care of their people.” “It is important that I take time for my employees.” “A good leader looks for solutions when difficulties arise.” “I want to learn something from my people as a leader.” “Good conversations can help others to develop further.”

Such beliefs shape our feelings and behavior. Whether a leader gratefully accepts the feedback of a team member or rejects it with hurt feelings depends, in addition to the manner of the feedback, on the beliefs of the leader. For example, the belief that feedback from employees is helpful for one’s own development. A leader with the mindset “I would like to learn something from my people” will certainly behave differently in conversations than a leader with the mindset “As a leader, I must know and be able to do everything better than my people.” Depending on the type and intensity of my beliefs, I will enter into conversations with my employees in very different ways and behave accordingly. However, we do not want to leave unmentioned that our behavior is influenced by other factors as well. Physiological and psychological needs (e.g., for sleep or autonomy) also play an important role in our behavior. Basic personality traits (e.g., agreeableness) are also relevant. With regard to the quality of listening, for example, it can be expected that an overtired leader, regardless of their beliefs,

2.1  Entering conversations with the right attitude

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will listen less well in a conversation. From a leader with a strong expression in the personality trait of agreeableness, we can assume that they will try to make conversations as harmonious as possible. In particular, aspects of the situation are also very relevant for our behavior: If we are exposed to distractions in a conversation, for example, this influences our behavior. The system in which we operate also has a shaping effect. In an organization with a working climate characterized by mutual appreciation, a certain pull effect to behave accordingly is created. This can even mean that we behave contrary to our beliefs. Systemic conditions also influence our beliefs. Our behavior results from this interplay of various influencing factors. We briefly discuss these relationships because, especially in popular self-help literature, the view is occasionally expressed that our beliefs would almost completely determine our behavior. The impression is created that we only need the right attitude and we would behave “better”. In view of different psychological research strands, this perspective seems too one-sided to us. Where do our beliefs actually come from? Here too, we can assume various influencing factors. As already mentioned, we move in systems, e.g., in our family or in our work team. In such systems, there are shared beliefs (e.g., “We take good care of each other.”), which influence our personal attitudes. It is not just about a single person, but we should always also consider the systems around the person. If we join a new work team, for example, we can assume that the shared beliefs in this team will influence us. Since early childhood, we collect experiences every day. We are constantly learning something new. Our mindset is also shaped by everything we have learned so far, for example in relationships with our partners, siblings, classmates, colleagues, and other important interaction partners. It makes a difference for us as leaders whether we were listened to in our childhood or not. Each of us brings our individual learning history into everyday work. Our personality is also shaped by our genes. Whether we experience social situations (such as conversations) as stimulating or rather as exhausting also has something to do with what we have inherited from our parents in our genes. It is also interesting that genes and environment mutually influence each other. There is convincing evidence that our genes play a role in which situations we seek out and, conversely, the effect of our genes is influenced by environmental conditions. We humans are indeed very fascinating beings. Monocausal explanations usually fall short, e.g., the statement: “Your mother was already a choleric boss. So you will behave just as impulsively.” In the interaction of our genes and our experiences, we have grown as humans, thus forming a kind of soil on which our feelings, thoughts, and behavior thrive in

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everyday life. Depending on the nature of this soil, certain behavior grows better or worse. In interaction with important reference persons and through significant life experiences, our attitudes solidify. Should we accept our attitudes as given or can we change them? We can assume that changes are possible within certain limits, for example by putting ourselves in new situations in which we gain new experiences. Also, through self-reflection and external impulses, we can gain new insights. Trying out new behavior can change us. We do not consider it possible or sensible to reprogram our mindset overnight. Many of our beliefs are highly likely to be very useful to us. They have proven themselves, at least in certain contexts. If we want to develop further, it is helpful to question our attitudes and behavior and to expand our thinking and behavioral repertoire. Under no circumstances should we define ourselves as victims of our genes, our previous learning history, and the systems in which we operate. Psychological research has shown for decades that we can change. Against this background, we advocate reflecting on one’s own attitude as a, maintaining sensible attitudes, and at the same time being open to valuable new perspectives.  Tip  Regularly take time for self-reflection on your attitudes as a leader. Schedule half an hour twice a year in your calendar for this: • • • • •

What beliefs do I have that shape my leadership actions? Where do these beliefs come from? What evidence is there that these beliefs are accurate? What experiences challenge these beliefs? What new perspectives have I gained in recent weeks?

As a leader, becoming aware that inner attitudes shape my behavior and that these are related to my genes and life experiences can help me to encounter other people with more tolerance.  Tip  Some of your employees’ attitudes may surprise you. Hold back on judgments! Let yourself be positively surprised by other perspectives! Like at a market on vacation in a different cultural circle, where you can discover new spices and dishes. Develop openness and tolerance for different needs, ideas, opinions, etc. Make a conscious effort to appreciate differences in conversations: “I think it’s great how you approach

2.2  Doing something with what is heard

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this topic. I wouldn’t have thought of that.”, “It’s great how many different opinions are being brought in here. There are some completely new, exciting perspectives for me.”

If we only ever talk to people who think the same way we do, we will hardly be able to expand our thinking and behavioral repertoire. It is more likely that people will become development helpers for us if we get to know other perspectives and experience new things in exchange with them. Good listening can be a key to this.

2.2 Doing something with what is heard In addition to the realization that good listening depends heavily on inner attitude, the second conclusion from the work of Kriz et al. (2021b) is also very relevant. Employees include in their judgment of the quality of listening whether something happens after the conversation. For example, if support was requested for a task, it is crucial for the employees whether they actually receive this support after the conversation. Listening and acting are therefore closely intertwined and must be considered together. Those who show openness and interest in the conversation and then do nothing afterwards violate expectations and cause disappointment. Supposedly good listening is turned into the opposite by a lack of action. The quality of listening stands or falls with the quality of action between conversations. Example: Good intentions that fall by the wayside

Michaela has noticed that she is getting better and better at focusing on her conversation partner in conversations. She is much more attentive than before and takes many notes during the conversations. She writes down what she wants to take care of afterwards. Unfortunately, many of the planned points are lost in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. The conversation notes pile up on her desk. Again and again, she remembers that she still wanted to take care of this or that. Her employees remind her of the open points, which is unpleasant for her. She feels guilty. Especially when several reminders are necessary until she finally does something. She tries to console herself with the fact that she has a lot of very, very important things to do, but at the same time is aware that this is a lame excuse. She knows that there is hardly anything more important for leaders than implementing agreements made with their own employees. ◄

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2  What good listening specifically means

In our example, it is expected that the employees will initially be pleased that Michaela listens to them attentively, takes notes, and signals that she will take care of certain points afterwards. The disappointment will be all the greater when they wait in vain for feedback. Some employees may not dare to ask again after some time or resign when they repeatedly experience that promises are not kept. If Michaela does not provide feedback on a task as announced, clarify a matter with her own leader, reconsider a specific topic, or make a necessary decision, this will lead to frustration and dissatisfaction on the part of the employees. Her reputation as a good listener will quickly vanish. Good listening cannot be exhaustively analyzed based on certain objective characteristics in a specific conversation sequence. At least, an essential part is missing. A leader who listens with great attention and implements many of the behaviors mentioned in Fig. 2.1 will still not be perceived as a good listener if, for example, ideas are not picked up or promises are not kept. Then a story of ongoing disappointments arises, which is exacerbated by the supposedly good listening. In the first moment, attention is paid, but what has been addressed is not listened to. If you promise to take care of something, it must be your top priority. By the way, not only because you want to listen well, but because you cannot expect reliability from your employees as a leader if you do not act reliably yourself.  Tip  Clearly state in conversations what you will do with what you have heard. And also clearly state if you cannot or do not want to fulfill certain wishes or pick up ideas, for example. Justify this well. As a leader you may (still) find it difficult to deal with the fact that you have to disappoint employees’ expectations. We offer you the following thought: “It is part of my leadership task to tell employees that I personally or we as a company cannot fulfill certain concerns. This is a relevant part of my leadership task. The important thing is: every rejection with justification!”

Already in the conversation, it is important for the quality of listening that it is possible to set something in motion through suitable questions and appropriate suggestions: new ideas emerge, competencies are built, open questions are clarified (Kriz et al., 2021b). A good listening leader can contribute to employees gaining more clarity for themselves in the conversation, e.g., about views, interests, or competencies. They organize their thoughts, discover new perspectives,

2.2  Doing something with what is heard

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Build competencies (e.g., through conversational model learning). Identify and clarify unanswered questions (e.g. in a work task)

gain more clarity (e.g. what is important to me in my work)

good listening

take other perspectives (e.g. on a stressful event)

new ideas emerge (e.g. to solve a problem)

Fig. 2.2   What can be achieved through good listening in conversations (a selection of important aspects)

and gain insights (Lloyd et al., 2015). Against this background, we understand asking good questions and providing measured suggestions that help the conversation partner as an important aspect of good listening (Zenger & Folkman, 2016). What added value does the conversation have for the employee? This is a question we should ask ourselves as leaders. This can also mean appreciating and picking up ideas that advance the team or the company. Zenger and Folkman (2016) emphasize that it is not about winning a debate, but about wanting to be helpful to the conversation partner. Fig. 2.2 provides an overview of what can be achieved in conversations through good listening. Kriz et al. (2021b) emphasize that the interaction between leaders and employees is not about a single conversation, but about a process that results from the multitude of joint conversations and associated actions.

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2  What good listening specifically means

Questions for reflecting on behavior after conversations

• Do I properly follow up on conversations? (e.g., taking notes, clarifying something, picking up on suggestions, making changes) • Do I give feedback to my conversation partners when I have taken care of certain topics after a conversation? • For example, do I explain to an employee in a subsequent conversation if I do not pick up on certain ideas or do not comply with requests? In the following chapter, we will discuss typical conversation situations in everyday leadership and explain how these can be used as opportunities for good listening.

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How leaders can implement good listening in their daily practice

It is possible that in your organization, there is an annual formalized employee appraisal between leaders and employees. In such discussions, goals for the coming year are often agreed upon, goal achievement is assessed with regard to the past year, cooperation is reflected upon, and general job satisfaction is discussed. Performance evaluations, competence development, and career perspectives can also be part of such conversations, which are documented and stored in the personnel file. In some companies, the various topics are divided into several discussions. As a rule, leaders are provided with guidelines, protocol templates, or similar tools to support them in conducting these conversations. Such conversations are an excellent opportunity for good listening. For example, if working conditions are to be reflected upon or meaningful development paths are to be agreed upon, this will hardly be possible without good listening. Such conversations are a valuable tool for addressing the wishes and concerns of employees. One employee may want to work more from home, another may be interested in further training, and yet another may want to become a team leader—a wide range of topics can be addressed in such conversations. Concerns need to be clarified, possibilities explored, and compromises often found. Good listening is the crucial prerequisite for this. In Sect. 3.2, we will discuss such special conversation occasions, for example, development talks. Example: Designing annual talks as a genuine dialogue

In Michaela’s company, so-called annual talks are held in the last quarter of each year. Michaela realizes that she has a very high speaking share in these conversations. She talks about what, in her opinion, has worked well in the current year and what needs to be worked on more or better in the new year. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 A. Häfner and S. Hofmann, Listening for Managers, Springer essentials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-67624-0_3

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3  How leaders can implement good listening in their daily …

She notices that she is holding more of a monologue than conducting a dialogue. Occasionally, she asks closed questions during the conversation: “Did you experience it that way?”, “Do you agree with me?”. She learns little about her employees’ perspectives and possible concerns. In future annual talks, she wants to change this and create a genuine dialogue at eye level. ◄ The focus of our essentials, however, is not primarily on such special occasions, but rather on the everyday communication between leaders and employees. We argue that it has negative effects on employees if leaders who listen poorly throughout the year then make an effort to listen well due to formal occasions (e.g., a mandatory annual appraisal). There is a high probability that this behavior will be perceived as inauthentic. Especially if nothing is done with what is heard: if arguments are not made, backgrounds explained, agreements reached, and implemented afterward. Disappointments on the part of employees are then very likely. In Sect. 3.2, we will also discuss such everyday situations, for example, a weekly regular meeting on various points between leaders and employees. First, we will deal with the design of suitable framework conditions in Sect. 3.1. By this, we do not mean organizational framework conditions (e.g., the equipment of meeting rooms), but aspects that each leader has largely in their own hands (e.g., putting their smartphone aside during conversations). We assume that good listening requires good framework conditions in the first step. In the next step, we describe typical conversation situations under 3.2 and how good listening can succeed in these situations. Finally, in Sect. 3.3, we will discuss how leaders can successively develop their listening skills over a longer period of time. Good listening requires a suitable framework. We argue that good listening arises from the interplay of conducive framework conditions, the appropriate inner attitude, and the associated specific behavior. To improve one’s listening skills, daily practice is important, as well as regular feedback, for example from one’s own employees or other leaders.

3.1 Creating the right conditions for good listening Experiments have shown that distractions (e.g., a flickering screen behind the speaker) impair the quality of listening (e.g., Itzchakov et al., 2017, Study 3). Kriz et al. (2021b) argue that focusing attention on the speaker is an important prerequisite for good listening. In this section, we discuss how leaders can succeed in giving their team members attention and engaging in conversation with

3.1  Creating the right conditions for good listening

21

minimal disturbance in everyday life. Table 3.1 contains a number of suggestions, which we supplement with explanations and examples. The suggestions aim to promote focusing attention on the conversation partner. The suggestions from Table 3.1 are equally aimed at leaders in commercial areas, production, research and development, staff departments, or logistics.

Table 3.1   Suggestions for promoting good listening

Suggestions

Explanations and examples

Start the workday with a “Good Morning” round

We recommend that leaders visit their team members at their workplace in the morning and wish them a “Good Morning.” This “Good Morning” round can be an initial opportunity to start a conversation at the beginning of the new day. Team members may have a concern that they can address directly at this opportunity. We advise addressing each team member directly and linking this, for example, with a question: “How was your start to the day?”, “How are things going for you?”, “How are you progressing?”. If topics arise that cannot be clarified in a few minutes, a meeting can be scheduled directly. The “Good Morning” round requires that, depending on the team size, I, as a leader, do not schedule appointments, for example, in the first half-hour of the day

Build in free spaces for spontaneous conversations throughout the day

A leader who has filled their calendar with meetings and tasks will hardly be able to listen spontaneously. We argue that space for unplanned conversations is especially important for busy leaders. If you have not done this before, start with 15 min of free space per day and reflect on the effects. If the approach works for you, you could increase it to 30 or even 45 min. During this time, you could, for example, approach a team member who signaled a need for conversation during the “Good Morning” round, or you could take up the following suggestion in such free spaces

Walk through the coffee kitchen, down the hallway, through the offices, and through the factory floor several times a day

When leaders repeatedly seek contact with their employees, spontaneous conversations can arise. From practice, we know that this can be very difficult for leaders due to the density of tasks and appointments. Start, for example, with a small tour after your last meeting in the afternoon and address your employees directly: “How was your day?”, “What problems have occurred?”, “What went well today?”, “How satisfied are you with your work today?” (continued)

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3  How leaders can implement good listening in their daily …

Table 3.1   (continued)

Suggestions

Explanations and examples

Call team members instead of writing an email

Even if team members do not work together with their leader at the same location, the leader can seek personal contact. Especially in remote leadership, we recommend, for example, not responding to an email with another email, but with a phone call. This creates opportunities for good listening. Of course, this is not sensible for every email

Schedule regular meetings with team members

Regular meetings can promote a culture of listening, for example, by the leader asking open questions: “How has your day been so far?”, “How satisfied are you with the important meeting you had yesterday?”. Especially when the leader and team do not work at the same location, we consider such conversation rituals indispensable

Allow sufficient time for conversations depending on the occasion

An employee would like to develop into a shift leader. In an initial development discussion, you as a leader want to question the motives. This conversation will certainly not be meaningful in 20 min. A conversation time of one or two hours is probably appropriate. Make sure you do not get under time pressure in conversations. This will not always succeed. It is worth working on it

Schedule 15 min before and after meetings

It is impossible to be maximally attentive throughout an entire workday. Without breaks, our concentration quickly decreases. We recommend scheduling 15 min between meetings. This way, you can use the “5 + 5 + 5” rule: 5 min for the follow-up of the last conversation (e.g., creating a conversation note, writing a short email), 5 min for a short break (e.g., getting a tea), and 5 min for preparing for the next conversation (e.g., having relevant documents ready). In practice, implementing this rule is a major challenge, especially for higher-level managers. The 15 min often have to be defended vigorously. If successful, positive effects on the quality of listening and overall conversation quality are very likely

Prepare conversations well in Do I have all the documents at hand? Have I made notes terms of content for the conversation or prepared questions? Good listening starts with professional preparation. What do I want to clarify in the conversation? What do I want to learn from my conversation partner? In our experience, just a few minutes of focused preparation can significantly contribute to the quality of the conversation (continued)

3.1  Creating the right conditions for good listening

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Table 3.1   (continued)

Suggestions

Explanations and examples

Follow up on conversations as soon as possible

In Sect. 2.2 we discussed how important it is for good listening that something is done with what has been heard after the conversation. So please do not put your notes on a stack that you will not process, but follow up on the conversation immediately. Do you need to clarify something with your own manager or with team members? Have you promised to give feedback on a task by a certain deadline? Schedule your to-dos and stick to the timing. Important conversation results should be documented in writing for all parties involved. Often, this does not have to be a sophisticated protocol. A short email with the results may suffice

Do not look at the laptop screen, tablet, smartphone, etc. during meetings

Digital devices have a lot of potential for distraction. Especially in meetings with a larger number of participants, it happens that emails are processed on the open laptop, tablet, or smartphone, or the internet is surfed. Good listening will not succeed under these conditions. If you want to listen well to a conversation partner, you should consistently do without digital devices in conversations or at least ensure that you only open the application you need for the conversation, for example, to take notes

Position yourself in the room Various events can distract us from our conversation so that distractions from the partner, for example, a colleague entering the neighboring office and whom we see through a glass door; a construcenvironment are unlikely tion site that we perceive through our window; the radio of colleagues in the neighboring office. The cognitive capacities of every human being are limited, and we are not particularly good at distributing our attention to multiple tasks and events. Therefore, we recommend choosing the location and seating position, especially for important conversations, consciously with minimal disturbance Mentally prepare for an upcoming conversation

Every day we have inner dialogues with ourselves. We can at least partially shape these consciously. We recommend that you prepare a coherent thought and use it before conversations. Possible helpful thoughts could be: “I am now fully concentrating on our conversation.”, “I give my conversation partner my full attention.”, “I am open to the ideas of my conversation partner.”, “I am curious about what we can work out together.” Your personal sentence, which helps you focus on your conversation partner, can, of course, be completely different

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3  How leaders can implement good listening in their daily …

A “Good Morning” round, for example, is usually just as possible in a production area as in an office. Conversations should always be well prepared and followed up, regardless of the work area. Example: Good follow-up of conversations

Michaela has firmly resolved to always follow up on conversations with her employees immediately. To ensure this, she schedules at least 15 min after each conversation, often more. For particularly important conversations, she briefly summarizes the results for herself and her team member in an email (e.g., an agreement to change the degree of employment or the home office regulation). After each conversation, she considers what tasks arise for her and schedules these tasks directly in her calendar. For each team member, she has a digital overview in which she notes important points that she wants to reflect on with the affected team member at a later date. In future meetings, she uses these points again to inquire. After conversations, various tasks arise for Michaela: reflecting on a career wish of an employee with her own manager, giving feedback on a task, clarifying a matter with another department, obtaining information from the HR department. It is important to Michaela that she schedules these tasks bindingly and tells her employees when they can expect them to be completed. If Michaela cannot meet the deadline, she informs them about it. ◄ Through her behavior, Michaela sends a clear signal that she is committed to taking care of the matters discussed. In doing so, she covers an important aspect of good listening. This approach is highly likely to have other positive effects: through her role model function, Michaela influences the commitment within her team. Michaela essentially serves as a model for her team. Conversely, if Michaela does not take care of agreed-upon matters, she can hardly demand commitment from her employees. Not least due to the Covid pandemic, geographically distributed leadership has gained in relevance. Many companies are increasingly relying on the use of remote work (e.g., from home). It is becoming the norm that on a given workday, only a small part of the team works together in one place. We will discuss this topic in more detail in Chap. 4, but we would like to point out already at this point that, in our view, the shared time in presence gains in importance due to the mentioned development. With a low quantity of shared presence time, the quality should be all the better.

3.1  Creating the right conditions for good listening

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 Tip  Especially if you, as a leader, do not work with your employees at the same location every day (e.g., due to appointments with customers or suppliers, meetings and conferences, or working from home), it is all the more important that you take time for your employees when you are together in one place. Do not disappear behind your notebook, but seek contact with your employees!

Good listening requires opportunities and good framework conditions. If your appointment calendar is overflowing with external obligations, there will be no room for good listening. If you are mentally preoccupied with other work processes during a conversation, you will not be perceived as a good listener.  Tip  You may have employees who react rather negatively to regular meetings: “If I have something, I will contact you…”. We advise against this practice. In our view, regular conversations are at least helpful, if not indispensable, for building a trusting relationship. These meetings on various points should take place at least monthly with each team member, preferably weekly or every 14 days. Your team members can collect points that are not immediately urgent for these appointments, you can reflect on the progress of long-term tasks and, above all, have a good opportunity to ask questions: How are you? How are you coping with your tasks? In which areas do you need my support?

As a leader, it is important not to confuse granting autonomy with laissez-faire. Allowing employees freedom (e.g., in designing their workdays, choosing work tools and ways to achieve goals) has various positive effects and is an important part of effective leadership behavior. However, being in exchange, showing interest, giving feedback, developing solutions together, etc., remains important. Being in contact only in emergencies is certainly not enough. Questions for reflecting on personal framework conditions for practicing good listening

• When looking at a typical workday: Which factors promote and which hinder good listening? • Which of these factors can you influence? • What could a small improvement look like? • What specific steps will you take?

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3.2 Practicing good listening in typical conversation situations In this section, we will take a closer look at some conversation situations that every leader is likely to experience in their daily routine. While some types of conversations may be almost daily occurrences (e.g., regular discussions on various topics with team members), others may be less frequent (e.g., development talks). We describe what we understand by the conversation occasion and offer a range of example questions that can be used in such conversations. With the deliberately very open-ended questions, employees are invited to share their thoughts openly. This creates a space for good listening. It is less about the specific question and more about the attitude behind it: As a leader, am I genuinely interested in what my employees are telling me? Do I want to understand their perspective? (Table 3.2) Every day, there are numerous conversation situations for leaders in which it is worthwhile to pay attention to the conversation partners and to take up what has been said with interest. Open questions are, so to speak, the serve to be able to listen well. Those who then take notes on important points will find it easier to follow up afterwards. These points may seem trivial—in practice, there is often room for improvement. For example, it is repeatedly criticized in practice that managers have a speaking share that is too high in conversations. The suggested questions help to counteract this. Asking open questions, giving full attention to conversation partners, taking notes, and reliably processing one’s own to-dos afterwards: these simple principles can also be used for meetings in larger groups. Below, we offer you some questions to reflect on your communication behavior in meetings. Questions for reflecting on your own communication behavior in meetings

• • • • •

How much do you listen and how much do you talk? How well do you connect to the contributions of others and continue them? How substantial are your contributions? Do you occasionally start talking and then find no stop? How concisely do you bring in your thoughts?

3.2  Practicing good listening in typical conversation situations

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Table 3.2   Suggestions for good listening in typical conversation situations

Conversation occasion

Description Example questions

Regular conversa- • For example, a weekly conversation appointtions on various ment of half an hour topics with team • Employees and leaders members each bring various points to the conversation • Content can include decisions, the current status of tasks and projects, employee concerns, or the current work situation

• How would you like to approach this task? • How would you decide? • What decision alternatives do you see? • How have you progressed with this task? • How are you currently experiencing your workload? • How are you coping with your tasks? • In which areas do you need my support?

• Formal conversation Annual review between leader and (often also employees referred to as employee or per- • Often in the last quarter of a year sonnel review) • Also possible in other cycles (e.g., semi-annually)

• How satisfied are you with your tasks? • What changes would you like to see in your tasks? • How do you feel in the team? • How can we further improve teamwork? • How do you experience our collaboration? • What can we improve in our collaboration? • How satisfied are you with the working conditions? • What improvements would you like to see in the working conditions? • What have you done well in the past months? • What improvements would you like to work on? • What are your goals for the coming year? (continued)

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Table 3.2   (continued)

Conversation occasion

Description Example questions

Feedback conver- • Feedback from employsations ees to the leader and vice versa • Related to the quality of collaboration or specific work content • As part of conversations on various topics, as a separate and scheduled conversation occasion or spontaneously during the day

• How did you experience our collaboration on this task? • How could I support you even better? • What did you learn from this project? • What causes do you see for the time delay in this task? • How can you manage to still meet the schedule? • What would you do differently in future tasks?

Idea development • As brainstorming to solve conversations a specific problem • As part of conversations on various topics or in meetings for a specific task or project

• What have we tried in the past? • What was successful and what was not? • What different solution approaches can we think of? • How would another team approach this topic?

Development conversations

• Which of your talents would you like to bring more into your work? • What new tasks would you like to tackle? Why? • Why would you like to become a leader, expert, project leader, etc.? • What indications are there in your biography that you have the prerequisites for this function? • Why could this function give you pleasure? • What indications are there from your private life that this function could suit you well? • How can we find out if you are suitable for this function? • What does our further roadmap look like?

• As part of annual employee reviews or as a separate appointment • Initiated by employees or the manager • Associated with a greater need for time • Usually a conversation process consisting of several conversations and tasks that need to be completed in between by both sides

(continued)

3.3  Gathering feedback

29

Table 3.2   (continued)

Conversation occasion

Description

Retention conver- • Usually initiated by the sations leader when there are signs of decreasing commitment from employees (e.g., dissatisfaction is expressed, engagement decreases, less willingness to take on long-term tasks) • Can be integrated into various topic discussions or annual reviews

Example questions • On a scale of 1 to 10: How satisfied are you currently with your work? • On a scale of 1 to 10: How strongly can you imagine staying with us in the long term? • On a scale of 1 to 10: How strongly do you feel connected to our company at the moment? • What would have to happen for you to improve by one step on the scale? • How much do you currently enjoy coming to work? • What would I as a leader need to address to keep you with us in the long term?

Our self-reflection has limits. Each of us has blind spots. We may consider our contributions in meetings groundbreaking, while our conversation partners assess them differently. We may think that we connect well to what has been said, while our conversation partners have the impression that we jump from topic to topic. It is all the more important that we obtain feedback from our conversation partners. We will go into this in more detail under 3.3.  Tip  Why not make a conscious effort to hold back in a meeting and focus on good listening and observing what is happening? What do you notice?

3.3 Gathering feedback In Chap. 1 we have worked out that self-image and external image can differ greatly when it comes to listening. This finding, of course, applies not only to good listening but also to other leadership topics. It is all the more important for leaders to receive honest feedback. But from whom and how can I obtain feedback?

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3  How leaders can implement good listening in their daily …

Overview of possible feedback sources

• Deputy • Employees of one’s own area of responsibility • Employees from other areas • Leaders at the same or similar hierarchical level • Direct superior • Other leaders at higher hierarchical levels • External conversation partners

In practice, only a small part of the diverse feedback possibilities is used. Every day we exchange with different conversation partners who can provide us with valuable feedback. Whether in a one-on-one conversation or in a larger meeting, we are constantly being perceived by others with our behavior. It is a pity if we do not take advantage of these opportunities. But how can we address the topic of feedback concretely? Below, we suggest some questions that can be selected and adapted depending on the target group. Such questions can be easily woven into the end of a conversation. Questions for obtaining feedback

• How helpful did you find our conversation? • Were you able to address all the topics that were important to you? • I noted the following points in our conversation… What might I have missed? • Which of your expectations for our conversation were met? Which were disappointed? • Which points from our last conversation are still open? Is there still something open that I wanted to do? • How comprehensible is my decision on this topic for you? • How well can you understand why I rejected your request? • How satisfied are you with what we have now worked out in our conversation? • You have now experienced me in this meeting. What can I do better in such meetings from your point of view? • You have now experienced me in this customer conversation. How well did I listen to the customer from your point of view? What did I miss? Which signals did I overlook?

3.3  Gathering feedback

31

The questions refer to different aspects that are relevant for being perceived as good listeners (Kriz et al., 2021b). As shown in Chap. 1, it is about more than just showing interest or asking open questions, but also about the quality of reasoning when rejecting requests (Kriz et al., 2021b). Some of our conversation partners are particularly well suited to give us feedback due to their role. First and foremost, this includes a deputy. Encourage your deputy to give you direct and honest feedback. Feedback that provides you with new information is particularly interesting. It does not help you if you mainly look for confirming feedback and, for example, indulge in explanations with your deputy that you could not have behaved differently, that you are doing everything right, and that others are to blame for problems. You are certainly a great leader ;-) Honest feedback helps you become even better.  Tip  Choose a conversation partner for tomorrow who you expect to provide helpful feedback. Write down one of the questions that suits you well and take the question with you into the conversation. It may surprise, annoy, or even hurt you if self-image and external image diverge and you are confronted with the mirror. Honest and constructive feedback is one of the greatest gifts. Treat this gift with value!

In practice, it is difficult to accept and use this gift. Critical feedback threatens our self-esteem. We all want to protect and build our self-esteem (Semmer et al., 2019). Therefore, it is obvious that we do not let critical feedback get close to us and focus primarily on positive feedback. However, how do we want to develop further in this way? Anyone who wants to improve as a leader needs critical feedback that illuminates blind spots and identifies mistakes.  Tip  If you notice that critical feedback triggers negative emotions in you and you push the feedback aside, then pick up the feedback again with a little more distance. Write down the feedback and take it out again in a quiet moment a few days later. Then ask yourself the following questions: What valuable information is in this feedback for me? What do I learn from it for similar situations?

You may initially not find a conversation partner who dares to give you honest feedback. This can have various reasons. Your own manager and colleagues do not want to hurt your feelings, or perhaps you have earned a reputation for reacting negatively to feedback. Don’t give up! Confident, long-term employees with a strong position in the team are probably most likely to give you feedback.

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As a starting point, you could critically address a specific issue and invite more feedback: “During the last team meeting, I had the impression that I talked too much and did not address some concerns from the team. I would like to work on myself. How did you perceive that?” Critical self-reflection after conversations can also be helpful for our development. We should keep in mind that the core goal is for our conversation partners to feel our genuine interest in their topics and the person; to experience a pleasant conversation atmosphere, so that they can open up; to feel understood in their emotions and to perceive that we care (e.g., Lloyd et al., 2015). We provide some suggestions below. Questions for critical self-reflection after conversations

• How clear am I about what my conversation partner wanted from me during the conversation? • What interests and needs did I perceive during the conversation? • What expectations have been conveyed to me? • How did my conversation partner feel? • How clear are the agreements we have made? • On which points have I possibly remained vague and noncommittal? If you have little to say in response to these questions, then your share of the conversation may have been too high and your antennas not well enough tuned to receive. “Quite a lot is expected of me as a leader. All the things I should pay attention to. I feel overwhelmed.” It would be completely normal if such thoughts crossed your mind while reading. Please try not to change too much at once. Many things will already be going well for you today. Recognize the good approaches in yourself and expand on them. You are working on one of the most important leadership competencies. Leading means above all communicating. And the most important part of good communication is listening. Example: Continuously working on oneself

Michaela has now made it a habit to briefly reflect on her behavior in conversations afterwards: How much space did I give my conversation partner? What did I learn? How participatory did I make the conversation? Michaela focuses on these questions because she has repeatedly observed that her share of the conversation can be very high and that she likes to act directive in conversations. In certain situations, she experiences this behavior as goal-oriented, but not in others. She wants to expand her behavioral repertoire. ◄

3.3  Gathering feedback

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The example also suggests that most of our behaviors can be useful in certain contexts. This means that in certain situations, it makes sense for a leader to make a directive decision and control whether this decision is implemented as desired. In other situations, it is important to act strongly participatory. There are only a few behaviors that are fundamentally bad (e.g., discriminatory or offensive behavior). For most behaviors, the question is in which context they have a positive effect and in which they do not. With this essential, we would like to invite you to reflect on your behavioral repertoire and, where appropriate, expand it. It is clear that as leaders, we will increasingly experience situations in the future where good listening is the most effective leadership behavior. We have already mentioned that good listening is becoming even more important in today’s working world. The more spatially distributed and time-flexible work becomes, the more valuable the shared time becomes. In the following chapter, we will discuss in detail how good listening can be achieved when working from home and in online meetings.

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How to succeed in good listening when working from home and in online meetings

During the Covid pandemic, working from home, where possible, became the standard. In many companies, the technical prerequisites were created under high pressure, and some concerns were cast aside. For months, many companies worked exclusively from home. But what happens now? How will we deal with working from home in the future? What does our New Normal look like? These questions suddenly became high on the agenda in many companies. For many, it was clear: There is no turning back. Working from home became the New Normal for many employees. Whether a certain number of days per week or maximum flexibility: Depending on the organization, different models were and are being lived and developed. It should not go unmentioned that some companies have decided to forego working from home. There are good reasons for this as well (e.g., concern about higher turnover due to lower team commitment or a feared decline in informal conversations that can be important for work success). In summary, a look at current surveys among company decision-makers shows that working from home plays a larger role today than before the pandemic. In relation to our topic, this development is interesting in two respects. On the one hand, from our point of view, it is very important that the New Normal in companies is well negotiated with all stakeholders. Without good listening, such negotiation processes will not succeed. It is not enough for a company management to dictate, for example, that two days of working from home per week are possible. Such a framework is helpful. However, negotiation and clarification processes in the smallest units, the teams, cannot be avoided.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 A. Häfner and S. Hofmann, Listening for Managers, Springer essentials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-67624-0_4

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Example: Different needs in a team regarding working from home

Michaela wants to continue to enable working from home in her team even after the pandemic. Therefore, she has held discussions with all employees and inquired about their individual needs and perspectives. She has asked many questions and, above all, listened. In doing so, she has gained interesting insights: Some prefer to work in the office together with their colleagues, finding working from home unattractive for various reasons; others can imagine working only or predominantly from home; still others lie somewhere in between. In the conversations, Michaela also hears very different aspects that are important to the team members: being able to work concentratedly at home, saving costs and travel time, the desire for personal contact with colleagues, the concern of having to take on more tasks when present in the office, concerns about missing out on a lot of what is happening in the team while working from home, the desire for a clear separation between office work and private life in one’s own apartment… ◄ The increased use of working from home was and is a massive change for many companies and their employees. Such changes are better managed with leaders who can listen well. In the conversations, Michaela has learned a lot about what is important to her employees and how they view the topic. On the other hand, the use of working from home raises the exciting question of how leaders can maintain good communication with their employees, as well as colleagues among themselves, when daily encounters at the workplace, in the hallway, in the kitchen, or in the company restaurant are no longer possible. How do we stay in good contact with each other? What do we actually understand by good contact? What is important to the individual team members in this regard? In Sect. 4.1, we discuss how opportunities for good listening can be created under working-from-home conditions. Closely intertwined with the use of working from home are online meetings. Online meetings have increased significantly in many companies. How can a space for good listening be created in online meetings? Especially in a format where distractions are very likely, e.g., due to incoming emails or disturbances in the home environment. In section 4.2, we propose rules for online meetings that are intended to facilitate good listening.

4.1  Contact management under working-from-home conditions

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4.1 Contact management under working-from-home conditions When all team members work together at one location, it facilitates personal contact and thus creates opportunities for good listening. This applies both within the team and for contact with the leader. In Table 3.1 we discussed opportunities that can be used for good listening (e.g., a “Good Morning” round or spontaneous encounters in the coffee kitchen or in the hallway). When a leader walks through the offices and is genuinely interested in their colleagues, conversations will automatically arise: “Can you help me quickly?”, “Do you have five minutes for me?”. Leaders who make rounds through their team will be familiar with such phrases. They are an excellent invitation for good listening. Of course, this requires that leaders seek contact or offer it. Colleagues who share an office can clarify issues across the desk and will inevitably listen to each other more due to the close proximity. Spontaneous conversations about professional and private topics arise. If team members work at different locations, contact and thus the opportunity for good listening is more difficult. How can we as leaders deal with this?  Tip  Use the current search for the New Normal for an open discussion process in the team. The significant changes that continue to persist are an excellent opportunity for good listening. It is likely that the New Normal cannot be defined once and for all, but that clarifications and readjustments will be necessary again and again. Consider when and in what context you will address the topic (e.g., once a year in a team meeting).

This can mean very concretely that you take two hours or half a day with your team to talk about various concerns related to the topic, make the different needs transparent, and make agreements with each other. Below, we offer some questions that can be used as a guide for such an exchange in the team. We recommend giving these questions to the team members in advance for preparation. Questions to clarify the use of home office in a team (with a special focus on designing good contacts):

• How do you experience the current working from home situation? • What do you like about working from home? • What disadvantages do you see?

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• What worries and fears do you have? • To what extent and with what distribution would you like to work from home? • How much shared time in presence is personally important to you? • What ideas do you have for how good contact in the team can succeed under the new conditions? • What do we need to consider when defining our rules? In the meeting, each team member has the opportunity to contribute their perspective. The other team members may ask questions about it. A very good opportunity to practice good listening in the team. It is important that you as a leader also prepare well and bring in your point of view. There may be framework conditions that are specified by the company management or by you as a leader. Such points must be explained and justified. Example: Clarifying the use of working from home in a team

Michaela has considered that it is important to her that all team members have two days of presence in the office per week. She can only imagine fewer presence days for special reasons (e.g., more than one hour of travel time, caring for relatives or small children in the household, health reasons). Otherwise, two days of presence are important to her so that trainees, interns, and new colleagues can be trained in person and informal, spontaneous conversations can arise. She is convinced that employee retention is promoted through shared time in presence. For Michaela, further conditions are important: One person must always be on site as a contact person for team members in the training phase, on a common day everyone should be present, in case of doubt, operational concerns take precedence and are decisive for the choice of the workplace. Michaela presents her considerations in detail. All other team members can also comprehensively contribute and justify their point of view. By listening well, mutual understanding grows, and in the end, rules can be negotiated that are acceptable to everyone. The team members were not even aware of what is important to the other team members and why. The team members agree that they will generally be present in the office for three days, but that occasionally three days of working from home are also possible. Wednesday is defined as the team day when everyone is in the office. The monthly team meeting is scheduled for the team day. On the team day, everyone also keeps the lunch break free for a joint lunch with the team. Through good listening and a participatory negotiation process, Michaela’s team has

4.1  Contact management under working-from-home conditions

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laid the foundation for maintaining contacts within the team even under working-from-home conditions. ◄ Despite all the advantages that working from home offers for employees, employers, and society (e.g., saving travel time and costs, reduced need for office space, lower pollutant emissions, fewer traffic jams), the social function of work must not be lost sight of. We humans are social beings, and our work, in particular, fulfills a social function. It is about experiencing appreciation, the feeling of belonging, and social support in difficult situations. If everyone were to work from home and limit their contacts to the absolutely necessary level for task completion, much of what work can fulfill in terms of functions in our lives would be lost. From the perspective of employers, it is important that employees are well integrated into their teams and the company. This contributes significantly to employee retention. At the same time, good social relationships at work are an important resource for the health of employees. It is therefore in the special interest of all parties involved that good contacts can be maintained even under working-from-home conditions, which includes good listening as an important ingredient. For us leaders, this means that we have to work together with our team to find out how we can continue to listen to each other under the conditions of the new normal.

Overview of possible contributions from leaders for fostering good relationships

• Ensure that there is common presence time with the leader for all team members (e.g., 1x per week or 1x every 2 weeks). • Deliberately seek contact with team members in the office (e.g., walk through the offices/through the factory hall several times a day). • Initiate and ritualize formats for personal encounters (e.g., joint breakfast breaks or lunches). • Create positive, shared experiences (e.g., team outings). • Regularly show interest in how team members are coping with working from home. • Deal appreciatively with different needs related to the topic of working from home. • Keep all team members in mind: not only express recognition to those who are in the office with you, not only ask for opinions from those you

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meet in the coffee kitchen, not only assign new tasks to those who work in the neighboring office, etc. • Contact team members working from home independently of scheduled appointments, for example, to inquire about their well-being. • Take time for small talk and private matters during meetings.

4.2 Rules for online meetings Let’s be honest. Who among us hasn’t experienced this: During online meetings, emails are processed, the headset is put aside, the presentation for the next meeting is prepared, or thoughts drift off to planned activities after work. Somehow, it happens. You may argue that this also happens in face-to-face meetings. You are certainly right. Meeting culture has suffered in presence as well, especially due to the use of smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Surely there are also face-to-face meetings where no one or hardly anyone listens, especially when a single person explains a matter for an extended period. However, in smaller groups with fewer than 10 participants, it seems that personal presence creates certain inhibitions. Mentally checking out and processing emails during a face-to-face meeting in a small group seems less likely than in an online format. And not noticing anything at all (e.g., by putting the headset aside) should not be possible in face-to-face formats. Example: Ineffective and inefficient online meetings

Michaela has scheduled an online meeting with several colleagues from different business areas. She presents a topic and wants to discuss it with her colleagues and finally derive measures based on it. Except for herself, no one uses their camera, and there are no comments or questions during her presentation. During the subsequent discussion, colleagues do speak up, but Michaela realizes that many questions are asked or suggestions made that she has already addressed in her presentation. Two participants do not contribute at all. Michaela is not satisfied with the quality of the discussion and the derived measures. She feels that hardly any innovative ideas have emerged. ◄

4.2  Rules for online meetings

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Based on our long-standing experience with online meetings, it becomes clear: the preparation and moderation of online meetings are more demanding than for face-to-face meetings.

Overview of possible rules for online meetings

• Carefully consider whether a meeting is the right format. Perhaps other formats are better suited for the goals and content (e.g., an email if only easily understandable information needs to be shared). • Only invite participants who are really needed (e.g., to make substantial contributions or to make a final decision). Less is often more! • Ensure a disturbance-free, domestic environment (e.g., make arrangements with the family, turn off the doorbell, switch off the radio). • All participants have their camera on. • Those who are not speaking should mute their microphone. • Take more breaks than in face-to-face formats (e.g., after 60 minutes of meeting time). • Take advantage of the benefits of the online format (e.g., share the screen, use voting tools, work together on a whiteboard). • Start and end on time.

If you compare the meetings you attend with the rules outlined here, you will probably find room for improvement in one or more areas. For meetings you lead yourself, you can provide the rules that directly relate to the conduct of the meeting to everyone in the invitation (e.g., “Please use the camera.”). Some of the rules for online meetings are also relevant for face-to-face formats (e.g., careful definition of the participants or punctual start).  Tip  Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get all participants on board from the beginning. Even if you ask everyone to turn on their camera, not everyone will do so. Repeat this request in the next meeting. Address individual people directly and personally. Don’t underestimate what you can achieve with persistence!

The goal is to create the minimum conditions for good listening. How can we listen to each other with attention and interest if we are processing emails or a television is running in the background at the same time? We humans are not good at performing multiple demanding tasks simultaneously. This is likely to cause

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mutual disturbances. Our attention capacity is not sufficient to do justice to both tasks. It can even be expected that a television or radio running in the background will negatively affect our listening skills (Itzchakov et al., 2017). We may not even notice this subjectively. However, we miss important information, signals conveyed through gestures and facial expressions are lost, our dialogues become banal, and we fall short of our potential in conversation outcomes. That’s why we strongly advocate minimizing distractions so that genuine listening becomes possible.

5

How organizations can be designed to promote listening

In the previous chapters, we have focused on how leaders can better listen to their employees in their daily interactions. If individual leaders in an organization practice good listening, it is certainly helpful for the affected leaders and their teams. However, we find it particularly promising if organizations can be designed in such a way that good listening becomes the norm. If the conditions in an organization exert a gentle pressure on the organization members to listen well to each other. How can such framework conditions, or prerequisites, be created? In Sect. 5.1, we outline the climate in a listening organization and provide suggestions on how the climate can be influenced by structures and mechanisms. In 5.2, we focus on the working conditions of leaders. How leaders experience their daily work and how they feel is crucial for good listening. Finally, in 5.3, we provide some guidance on what content can be included in training to promote good listening.

5.1 The climate in an organization “In our company, everyone can say what they think.”, “Leaders at higher hierarchical levels are interested in the opinions of employees.”, “We maintain an open and appreciative interaction with each other.” To what extent do these statements apply to your company? How would you describe the climate in your organization to a friend? By the climate in an organization, we mean how the organization members experience their daily work in the organization and what attitudes they have towards important characteristics of their organization:

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 A. Häfner and S. Hofmann, Listening for Managers, Springer essentials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-67624-0_5

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5  How organizations can be designed to promote listening

Do employees perceive their workplaces as secure? How strongly is collaboration characterized by trust and appreciation? How well can employees understand the decisions of top management? How much autonomy do employees experience?

These are examples of important features that shape the climate in an organization. How the climate is experienced may depend on one’s role in the company, the views of colleagues in the team, one’s own leader, individual expectations, previous experiences, and much more. Differences in perception are likely between teams and departments and even within individual units. Nevertheless, there are shared views within a team and an organization. Is there more of a climate of openness to new things or more of a conservative attitude? More of a climate of familiarity and closeness or a bit more distance? More of a climate of trust and freedom or more rules and control?  Tip  Ask your employees how they perceive the climate in the company. There may be interesting similarities and differences. Ask colleagues from other areas for their assessment. In anonymous online surveys the answers to questions like: “How do you experience the climate in our company?” or “How do we interact with each other in our company?” can be well represented as word clouds. Frequently mentioned terms are prominently displayed in word clouds. At a glance, it becomes transparent which aspects are particularly important to the majority of respondents.

Through such surveys, in personal conversations, through observation, or in workshops, the current climate can be identified. What characterizes a climate of listening? It is about interest in each other, a culture of caring, openness, and curiosity (Kluger & Itzchakov, 2022): • Is it normal to want to learn something new and gain new insights? • How openly are ideas shared? • How strong is mutual support? Answers to these questions reveal a lot about whether listening is encouraged or hindered in an organization. To quantify assessments, organizational members can also be presented with statements and asked to rate them on a scale. Below,

5.1  The climate in an organization

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we suggest some such statements. However, this is not a scientifically validated questionnaire.

Overview of possible statements for capturing the climate in an organization with a focus on good listening

• “No one has to fear being criticized or even ridiculed for an idea or suggestion.” • “Senior leaders have a genuine interest in the opinions of employees.” • “When I give my colleagues a suggestion, it is gladly taken up.” • “In our conversations, we develop many good ideas.” • “We ask each other for help.” • “We support each other.”

If the members of an organization strongly agree with the statements, then we can assume a clearly pronounced climate of listening. But how can this climate be specifically promoted if the statements are only agreed to a small extent? Our suggestions in Table 5.1 are primarily aimed at the upper management levels of an organization, who can exert significant influence through their role model function and the design of framework conditions. Many companies have established good information formats in which upper management passes on information to employees, such as podcasts, newsletters, statements in employee magazines, and company meetings. What formats are there specifically for upper management to listen? Communication in companies must not be a one-way street. There need to be well-established channels from employees to management. The formats presented in Table 5.1 serve as examples of a listening attitude. Without genuine interest in the ideas and concerns of employees, these will not work. Depending on the starting situation, a more extensive organizational development process may be necessary. In a first step, the current situation can be determined (e.g., through a survey and in-depth workshops) and a desired target state can be developed (e.g., in workshops). In the next step, ideas can be developed with broad involvement of employees to develop the current situation towards the desired target state. The CREW program is an organizational development approach that aims to promote mutual respect and politeness (Osatuke et al., 2009; Osatuke et al., 2013; Leiter et al., 2011). A detailed description can be found in Häfner and Hartmann-Pinneker (2023).

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Table 5.1   Formats for promoting good listening

Type of format

Description

Listening by top management: “If I were the CEO, I would …”

A format that brings the top management level into conversation with employees. In this context, employees (regardless of hierarchy) have the opportunity to present their ideas to one or more CEOs. Those responsible have the chance to listen well to the employees and make something out of the ideas presented. Specifically, for example, 5 to 10 ideas from employees can be presented within this format. Employees register in advance. Depending on the choice of the title, different focuses can be set: “Two hours of talk with the management: Your opinion counts!”, “We want to become a more attractive employer: Your ideas are in demand!”

Blind date lunches with the ­executive board

By chance, employees can be assigned to a lunch with members of the executive board. In this context, those responsible can, for example, ask questions about working conditions, etc.: “How are the working conditions at your workplace?”, “How well do you feel informed by the executive board?”, “What issues are on your mind?”, “How could we as a company become better?” A wide variety of questions can be considered to get the dialogue going. It is important that the managers primarily listen and secondarily inform or contribute their own opinion.

Employee survey

In regular (e.g., annual) employee surveys, employees can express their opinions. It is particularly important that the feedback from employees is taken seriously. This means, among other things, that leaders ask questions based on the results, for example in team meetings, and derive measures together with those affected. It would be insufficient to only inform about the results of the survey.

Workshops

Workshops can be scheduled on various topics to learn from employees and involve them in decisionmaking processes (e.g., redesigning office spaces, further developing the company strategy, developing ideas for more sustainability). The results are presented by the groups to the top management.

5.2  Working conditions of leaders

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5.2 Working conditions of leaders Good listening requires focusing attention on the conversation partner as an important ingredient (Kluger & Itzchakov, 2022). But do leaders even have the chance to focus on their conversation partners? This is not solely in the hands of leaders, but also depends on framework conditions that they can only partially influence. Table 5.2 contains some of these framework conditions.

Table 5.2   Framework conditions that facilitate or hinder good listening for managers

Factor

Description

Team size

How many team members does a leader have to take care of? If a single leader is responsible for 20 or 30 team members, good listening will hardly be possible. There is simply not enough attention available for individual team members. We recommend team sizes of 5 to 10 colleagues.

Premises

Is it possible to have undisturbed conversations? This question is particularly relevant in production or logistics areas. Even there, leaders should have the opportunity to speak undisturbed with employees.

Work volume and work density of leaders

How much do leaders have to do? How dense are their working days? If leaders, for example, have a full job as a clerk and the management tasks come on top of that, they will hardly be able to meet their employees with the necessary attention. Leaders must have the opportunity to design their task package in such a way that they have sufficient time available for each team member (e.g., on average 5% of their working time per week).

Pressure on leaders

Tense leaders cannot listen well. If leaders feel too much pressure regarding key performance indicators, deadlines, etc., they will hardly have sufficient cognitive capacities for their employees. This raises the question for upper management: What can we do to relax the leaders in our company? This may seem irritating to practitioners at first glance. Of course, not all stressors can be eliminated. Of course, every leadership role comes with special requirements. However, it is important to recognize the issue and strive for healthy framework conditions for leaders (Häfner et al., 2019). (continued)

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Table 5.2   (continued)

Factor

Description

Disturbances for leaders

For example, if a company has a rule that leaders must always be available for the next higher levels and the next higher levels frequently contact leaders with urgent concerns, concentrated work is hindered. The focus of attention on conversation partners suffers if, for example, an interruption must be expected at any time. Good leadership needs disturbance-free work phases. It is clear that interruptions are part of everyday leadership. The dosage is crucial.

“Around the clock” availability

Many leaders work in the evenings or on weekends. Even if this cannot be completely avoided, recovery phases are important. Those who recover well in the evening will be able to listen better the next day (Mojza et al., 2011).

Satisfaction of basic human needs

It is very likely that leaders who can satisfy their basic needs at work are better listeners (Van Quaquebeke & Felps, 2016). Basic needs include the desire for belonging, the pursuit of autonomy, and the experience of competence (Van Quaquebeke & Felps, 2016). Leaders who feel threatened in their competence will hardly ask open questions because this can be perceived as a sign of weakness. Those who feel a sense of belonging to a group and experience security and appreciation there will be more vulnerable in conversations because there is less fear of devaluing and rejecting reactions. Those who perceive a lot of autonomy in themselves will be more willing to give up control in conversations and engage with the impulses of the conversation partner (Van Quaquebeke & Felps, 2016).

Most of the influencing factors in table 5.2 are about stressors for leaders. Leaders are exposed to a variety of stressors (e.g., interruptions, emotionally challenging situations, pressure from numbers) that can lead to stress experiences (e.g., tension). How much stress do our leaders experience? An important question for upper management in an organization. Prolonged high stress experiences are very likely to have negative effects on health (e.g., negative effects on sleep quality, cardiovascular diseases, burnout). Leaders who often feel overwhelmed will hardly be able to provide the necessary attention to their employees (Kluger & Itzchakov, 2022). It is more likely that they will react absent-mindedly or even annoyed in classic leadership situations (e.g., an employee has a concern). It is

5.3  Training good listening

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therefore important to keep a close eye on the workload of leaders. In employee appraisals with leaders, their situation can be reflected upon and measures can be initiated. Especially in larger companies, structures can be created that relieve leaders (e.g., consulting and support services for specific leadership issues).

5.3 Training good listening In addition to the role model effect of upper management and the design of healthy working conditions for leaders, training can also contribute to promoting good listening in a company. There are now promising training approaches that have been used and evaluated in studies. In this section, we provide an overview of the training content. In the best case, they can be a suggestion for leaders on which topics are particularly worth dealing with. We take into account current training for which positive effects have been found (Ikegami et al., 2010; Itzchakov, 2020; Itzchakov & Kluger, 2017; Itzchakov et al., 2018; McNaughton et al., 2008). This overview contains only a selection. A description of a possible didactic approach in training can be found in Ikegami et al. (2010, p. 144).

Overview of communication training content for promoting good listening

• Dealing with typical myths about good listening (e.g., good listening happens automatically, is innate, and easy to implement) • Becoming aware of the negative effects of poor listening • Dealing with one’s own responsibility as a listener • Discussing what we as listeners can contribute to making our conversation partners feel comfortable in the conversation • Understanding that good listening is primarily an attitude (“listening with the heart”) and not the mechanistic chaining of conversation techniques • Preparing well for conversations • Avoiding positive or negative evaluations of what is heard or of the conversation partner—good listening is not about judgment and evaluation, but about interest and understanding • Showing empathy and respect (e.g., “I’m sorry that this problem has arisen. Can you please describe the problem in more detail?”)

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• Learning techniques to focus attention on the conversation partner and better understand them (e.g., taking notes; consciously attempting a change of perspective; noticing when becoming impatient in the conversation and/or mentally already formulating one’s own response) • Practicing in conversations to recognize not-so-obvious signals from the conversation partner (e.g., in body language) • Working on one’s own body language (e.g., eye contact) • Learning to ask good questions, request explanations, and handle feedback • Being able to perceive three different levels while listening: the content, body language signals, and the tone of what is said • Learning to separate the person from what is said and reacting to what is said (e.g., “I see this point differently.” instead of “You are wrong.”) • Summarizing what has been heard • Working together with the conversation partner on the next steps

What you can take away from  this essential

• Being able to listen well is one of the most important leadership skills (e.g., for promoting innovation or increasing employee retention) and is unfortunately not a given. Leaders generally listen worse than they themselves believe. This makes working on this topic all the more important. • Good listening is the engine for every relationship. A leader who can listen well will be rewarded with trusting relationships with their employees. • Those who want to become better listeners should focus less on specific behaviors (e.g., asking open-ended questions) and more on the attitude with which they enter conversations. Genuine interest in the needs and expectations of conversation partners and focusing attention on the conversation are more important than practicing certain behaviors. • The quality of listening is perceived by the conversation partner as an overall impression, with employees also considering whether their leaders can provide well-founded reasons for possible rejections of expressed concerns and whether something is done with what has been heard after the conversations. Good listening is therefore much more than just silence. • Good listening can be integrated in various ways into the demanding leadership routine (e.g., by having leaders respond to an email with a phone call or checking on theiring a tour of their team several times a day). • Especially with increased work from home and online meetings, good listening becomes even more important. With a reduced number of personal conversations, the quality of conversations should be all the better. It is important to actively seek contact with all team members on joint presence days. • Through feedback, we as leaders can improve. For example, we can obtain feedback after conversations (e.g., How helpful did you perceive our c­ onversation?

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 A. Häfner and S. Hofmann, Listening for Managers, Springer essentials, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-67624-0

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What you can take away from this essential

Are there any points that, in your opinion, have not yet been properly understood by me?). • Good listening is not only a topic for individual leaders, but also a matter of corporate culture. The management can lead by example and shape a culture of listening (e.g., through formats in which the management listens attentively to employees).

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Further Reading Häfner, A., & Hartmann-Pinneker, J. (2023). Promoting appreciation in organizations. Hogrefe. Häfner, A., & Hofmann, S. (2021). Successfully mastering the first 100 days as a leader: What new leaders should pay attention to. Springer. Häfner, A., & Truschel, C. (2022). Fluctuation Management: Avoiding Unwanted Resignations. Hogrefe. Häfner, A., Pinneker, L., & Hartmann-Pinneker, J. (2019). Healthy leadership: Promoting health, motivation, and performance. Springer.