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 totally understandable, and logical, in addition, since 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, or if they do, they don’t have a good relationship or image of them. And this only harms the work culture of the company.
When workers don’t feel listened to, little by little they stop feeling committed to the cause for which they are working, they stop identifying with the company and its values and culture, and in this way, performance decreases, and with it the quality and productivity of the service.
Although today all people interested in running a modern business are aware of 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 and the doors are open for feedback and the progress of the company, don’t hesitate to read this article to the end.
When you have a certain time in a career, you accumulate knowledge, wisdom, and experience, and, normally, 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 important. It is important to learn, understand, and improve. The best advice may come from the least expected place, but you will be unable to know this if you don’t keep an open mind and learn to listen actively. This is certainly an area in which most top corporate executives should improve.
Why? Well, 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 leaders of the organization will not know their own company in its entirety.
“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 important 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 to solve problems.
And today, we will focus on creating a systematic way of listening. How to create a suitable system so that the members of an organization feel heard and can come up with their opinions, suggestions, and bad news? Well, we recommend following these steps to start moving towards a work culture in which some of the pillars are active listening and understanding.
Trust us, your team members will feel much better once they are truly part of the company, important people, and not just pawns who carry out orders and receive one-sided information.
Hierarchy Isn’t Everything
Hierarchy is a necessary evil, as Mark Templeton, former CEO and President of Citrix, said. It’s important because it gives a sense of order, delegates tasks, and optimizes the operation of the activities and services of the company since it gives each person a specific place and position and is accountable to certain supervisors who will ensure that the work is carried out. Do correctly. But it’s just that.
Frequently in companies, people seem to relate the hierarchy to the respect or importance of a person, something that is completely wrong and that is by far harmful, both for the self-esteem of anyone and for the active listening ecosystem that you want to develop.
The hierarchy serves a specific purpose, but it does not determine the worth of any human being and this must be clear in any company.
Regardless of the title, all members of a team should feel comfortable enough to email or approach their leader to point out or discuss something. And leaders should be receptive and listen to this opinion, understanding that it’s as important and valid as that of 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 will 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, 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 to 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 to it, can go a long way towards finding an efficient way to solve the problem.
Either way, creating an environment in which employees feel safe sharing all kinds of information with you will benefit both you and them, since they will be more comfortable in their workplace, and you will have the 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 are going to be receptive and that you will listen to what they have to 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 too. That they can perceive the honesty in your invitation to be communicative.
If the company is too large or operates remotely, you can find alternatives to this, such as having meetings from time to time with some of the team members, having an online conference, or even a phone call. It’s the little things that show that you are interested in giving them an active place in the company and that you are interested in hearing what they have to say.
After applying these practices in your organization, you will notice that little by little they will bear fruit. You will have team members feeling more committed to the company, productivity levels rising, and you will also have a better notion of the nature of your organization and how it works.
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