For the last two weeks I addressed how and why encouragement plays well as a key leadership attribute - and how both words and taking action can be encouraging to those we serve. As a reminder, this is the specific definition of encouragement:
To encourage someone is to strengthen them, to give them hope, to reinforce their courage so that they are better equipped to face the next challenge; the next decision; the next day.
While the focus last week was on “acts” of encouragement – on “doing something” that will encourage another person – this week I will conclude by suggesting that we can encourage others simply by listening to them…really listening.
Here are some ideas for ways to listen in a manner that can encourage those we lead:
- Solicit and then take seriously ideas for improvement, be it processes, systems, or organizational structure.
- Listen to feedback on the effectiveness of our communication – ask how we can communicate more clearly, timely, effectively.
- Listen when a person tells us they “sense” something in their gut about a decision, direction, or action – value their discernment
- Listen to the tone of the conversations in our setting – are people excited, reserved, hesitant, or forthcoming?
- Hear what is not being said – if people are not free to speak, what does that say about the culture, the pressure, our own leadership
- Leave our office door open – model a desire to hear from others, to receive feedback, to welcome input.
Listening to those we serve is a way to honor them and to thereby encourage them. Sometimes an act of encouragement is accomplished best by simply being a good listener.
Regardless of the chosen means of encouragement, be it with words, our actions, or by being a good listener, the goal remains the same: to strengthen those we serve.
Encouragement is contagious…which person can you encourage in the next hour? No sense in putting it off – go for it.