Simple steps you can take in order to listen better

Listening is key to getting and keeping more customers

Why is it that listening is so important as a leader?

Because the people you lead are customers as well – customers of your ideas, vision, strategy etc.

Last week’s weekly installment on customer communication focused heavily on listening to your customers and based upon your reactions on Twitter it hit home. We were going to round up a number of videos, articles and quotes about listening for you, but we found something much, much better.

10 minutes of wisdom from John Vechey, of Popcap Games, talking about listening as a leadership skill at the fantastic Geekwire event last Thursday. We caught snippets of his talk, but ironically, it was tough to listen to it all at the packed event :-).

We were really happy to see that they’d caught it on video, in its entirety, please watch it.

Take some action: what you can do to become a better listener

To have an Active Listening Practice , John says there are two keys:

• It’s about being active, being there and being present
• It’s a practice: you’re never “done”

If you watched the video of John above (go do it, seriously), at the end you caught that he had a challenge:

For one day, listen more than you normally would.

Who’s going to join us in being a better listener for at least 24 hours? Let us know if you’re going to try it in the comments – here’s what he recommended you do:

• Ask more questions when you’re talking with someone
• Focus on the other person
• Repeat back what they say for clarification
• Pause and reflect
• Let go of your own points
• Don’t wait to just talk
• Talk less
• Be present