It often happens that, in large organizations with hierarchies and people occupying various positions, communication diminishes and is no longer as effective as it once was. This is understandable and logical. In addition, the larger and more populated an organization is, the more difficult it will be for a message to reach all its members in the same way.
For this reason, it’s so common in large corporations that people don’t know their CEOs; if they do, they don’t have a good relationship with or image of them. This only harms the company’s work culture.
When workers don’t feel listened to, they gradually lose commitment to the cause for which they are working, and they lose identification with the company and its values and culture. In this way, performance decreases, and with it, the quality and productivity of the service.
Although today, everyone interested in running a modern business knows how important it is that a team feels good for the company to function well, few take this information into their own hands and put it into practice.
If you want to learn how to create a more welcoming and inspiring ecosystem in your organization in which members feel heard. The doors are open for feedback and the company’s progress, so don’t hesitate to read this article to the end.
When you have a specific time in a career, you accumulate knowledge, wisdom, and experience, and, usually, this gives you the notion that you know more than people in positions less than yours within a company.
However, as common as this is, it is still a mistake to fall into arrogance and take the opportunity away from people who want to teach you something new just because they are less experienced or lower than you on an organization chart.
Active listening is essential. It is important to learn, understand, and improve. The best advice may come from the least expected place, but you cannot know this if you don’t keep an open mind and learn to listen actively. This is undoubtedly an area in which most top corporate executives should improve.
Why? In the long run, the company is much more than what the core values or the work culture say in theory; it is its employees and what they think of it. If there is no open information channel in this sense, the organization’s leaders will not know their own company.
“Listening is a multidimensional practice. Leaders must listen attentively and systematically to gradually develop a nuanced sense of the nature of their organization.” reads an article in Harvard Business Review on the crucial topic of listening in a business.
As it emphasizes, it’s necessary to listen actively and systematically to develop a notion that allows you to understand the nature of your company, where it is, and where it can go with what it has to progress or solve problems.
Today, we will focus on creating a systematic listening system. How can we create a suitable system so that an organization’s members feel heard and can express their opinions, suggestions, and bad news? We recommend following these steps to start moving towards a work culture in which active listening and understanding are some of the pillars.
Trust us: your team members will feel much better once they are part of the company, essential people, and not just pawns carrying out orders and receiving one-sided information.
Hierarchy Isn’t Everything
As Mark Templeton, former CEO and President of Citrix, said, hierarchy is a necessary evil. It’s important because it gives a sense of order, delegates tasks, and optimizes the operation of the company’s activities and services. Each person has a specific place and position and is accountable to supervisors who will ensure the work is carried out. Do correctly. But it’s just that.
In companies, people frequently seem to relate the hierarchy to a person’s respect or importance, which is entirely wrong and harmful to anyone’s self-esteem and the active listening ecosystem you want to develop.
The hierarchy serves a specific purpose, but it does not determine the worth of any human being, which must be clear in any company.
Regardless of the title, all team members should feel comfortable enough to email or approach their leader to point out or discuss something. Leaders should be receptive and listen to this opinion, understanding that it’s as important and valid as anyone in a higher position.
Allow Bad News To Come
Not everything is bright and happy, neither in life nor at work, so more than once, someone from your team will have to approach you to inform you of something that you do not like. But this is the way things are, and to avoid having a blind notion of what is happening in your company, you must be receptive and accessible and take that information even if it will put you in a stressful situation.
Whether it’s a mistake someone made, a suggestion to improve the way something works, or even a complaint, the “bad news” is as valuable (or even more) as the good news because there is where is room for improvement, and that should be the main focus of any entrepreneur: continuous improvement.
Your attitude toward the difficulties your team communicates to you should be calm, respectful, and open. Active listening and giving yourself a chance to fully understand the message before responding can go a long way toward finding an efficient way to solve the problem.
Either way, creating an environment where employees feel safe sharing all kinds of information with you will benefit you and them. They will be more comfortable in their workplace, and you will have a complete picture of what happens in your organization.
Face Them
One way to encourage your team to be honest and forthcoming with you is to show that you will be receptive and listen to what they say. This is not achieved from a distant, cold, and commanding position since this image will only project hardness and disinterest.
You must show yourself, make them see you, get to know you, and try to get to know them so that they can perceive the honesty in your invitation to be communicative.
Suppose the company is too large or operates remotely. In that case, you can find alternatives, such as occasional meetings with some team members, an online conference, or even a phone call. The little things show that you are interested in giving them an active place in the company and in hearing what they have to say.
After applying these practices in your organization, you will notice that they will bear fruit slowly. Team members will feel more committed to the company, productivity levels will rise, and you will have a better understanding of your organization’s nature and how it works.
See more articles by Andrea Corona.
