Listening. Period. It has to be by far the most important trait that any manager needs to have. By the way, I'm not only talking about listening as in hearing but also interpreting their vernacular through their expression of speech and body language. We sometimes forget that verbal expressing is just one miniscule part of the overall communication and a major part has to do with the body language, posture, and facial expressions through which a person expresses their thought process.
I'm not sure why some of us are not good at it but the reality is we most of the times are caught up in our web of thoughts or already have preconceived notions about the individual conveying the message. Thus, we tune out somewhere in the middle of the message and don't give a fair chance to that specific message. It could be in a hurry to end the conversation because of some prejudice against that person/topic or our mind has already come up with some smart retort.
I wonder how one could manage effectively with a listening impediment. My sense is that one can't. A manager's job is, well, to manage the team. In my field, the success of the project is also governed by the cohesiveness of the team i.e. the social engineering aspect of it. Also, how motivated and aligned every team member is towards the success of the project?
Wouldn't someone with listening impediment miss the core issues team members are grappling with? As a manager, one has to weed out all the team issues to make sure the team is aligned with one thing only - success of the project. And, one can only really do it if someone can listen, understand, judge and respond effectively.
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