Tips for practicing one-on-one listening to improve internal comms

Companies are recognizing listening’s impact on retention, productivity, and culture by installing macro-organizational listening strategies. Strategies include designating a chief listening officer, hiring listening consulting firms and employing organization-wide listening mechanisms like engagement surveys; pulse-taking during exit, onboarding, and post-merger interviews; crowdsourcing methods like suggestion boxes or polling on specific topics.

However, don’t ignore the pivotal role that you play as an individual manager. Your efforts are what weave listening into the fabric of the institution by ensuring that it’s not merely an annual or quarterly corporate event, but an ongoing management practice. As a manager, you likely recognize the value of active listening as an essential sales and marketing external communication competency for surfacing customer needs, handling objections, and building trusting relationships and brand loyalty. But do you underestimate listening’s vital role in internal communication?

You surely understand how to actively listen: don’t interrupt, suspend judgment, ask open questions, paraphrase content as an accuracy check, and reflect emotions to convey empathy. But are you short-sighted about when and where you should be listening?