It is Never Too Late to Start Action Oriented Listening

I am a quote nutcase. I enjoy digging up new quotes for my "quote of the day", which I place on my voicemail and in my email almost every day. Here is one that recently caught my attention:

"Listen a hundred times. Ponder a thousand times. Speak once." Chinese Proverb.

It started me thinking again about the power of what I will term "Action Orientated Listening." If you are an entrepreneur that wants to grow your business further, Action Orientated Listening may be one of your most important skills to acquire or sharpen.

Let's face the truth - without a doubt, we all can improve our listening skills. All of us, at some time or another, have been poor listeners. Either we have tuned out the person talking to us or we already have the answer in our minds before they finish their first sentence. Either way, we know that we can and should sharpen our listening skills.

From my perspective, the suggestions out there on how to improve your listening skills miss a key element that is important for all entrepreneurs. They fall short in dealing with the most critical reason that you are listening in the first place, which is to take ACTION based upon what you have heard.

I use the term "Action Orientated Listening" because it forces you to not only listen well but to listen so intently that you know what needs to happen after the conversation is over. I am not talking about you thinking up solutions while someone else is talking but ensuring that you are understanding so well what the other person has said that you clearly know what needs to happen next. Again, I am not talking about solutions but rather ACTION, which is the next step to help you stay engaged and ensure that the conversation truly becomes meaningful.

Let's take a real life example, one that I see repeated time and time again. In our work with companies we perform business assessments, which is designed to independently assess where the business is currently at, what is going well, what improvements can be made and what the next steps are. A critical outcome to this work is a comprehensive action plan, that everyone agrees to, that outlines what will happen next and who is accountable.

One of main elements of this assessment is to independently interview employees and customers to find out their suggestions on what shouldn't change and what should. I generally do not have the owners at the interviews so that employees and customers feel free to provide us with their brutally honest feedback.

I can be the best listener possible, understand every point that a customer or employee has made but if the owners only listen to what I have summarized but fail to translate it into ACTION, in other words, if nothing changes, then I believe that the company is worse off than before. In this case customers and employees become frustrated due to the lack of ACTION.

Let's face it - we have all been there before, we know what it feels like to not be really listened to. We know how we feel when we care enough for someone or their business to pour our heart and soul out to them about what needs to be different only to have nothing change. We feel like our opinion isn't valued so we clam up and our value to the person or business relationship is significantly diminished. A relationship that was build on trust has been damaged and the person may take a long time before they are willing to risk providing us with their honest opinion again.

I am no different than you. I too am guilty of not really listening by failing to take ACTION on honest feedback. In some cases, you two know who you are, I know that my actions will speak much louder than any promises that I could ever make. Action, coupled with a humble spirit and their grace, is the only ointment that will heal this wound.

Remember that if all you do is "listen" to what is being said but never take action or commit to taking steps to improve the situation, you have not really listened in the first place.

Here are seven simple steps that I have designed to help you become an ACTION Orientated Listener:

1. Set everything else aside and focus solely and only on the person speaking with you. Be sure to make direct eye contact.
2. Set aside the tendency to be the "Answer Person" by putting out of your mind the floodgate of thoughts as to how to "fix" the problem/issue being raised.
3. Stay in the conversation by asking questions to help you further understand their viewpoint. Never interrupt.
4. Take the time to summarize what they have said to you. "What I hear you saying is..." is a great way to summarize. Be sure to get your understanding right before talking about any actions at all. As Covey says, Seek to Understand, Then to be Understood.
5. Focus on the key actions that both of you need to take away from the conversation, which could include additional research required of simply time to absorb the brutally honest feedback. If things are still unclear, a committed date and time to meet again is sufficient.
6. Be humble enough to ask for their help to keep you accountable to the action orientated promises that you have made and offer to do the same for them.
7. Agree to be brutally honest with each other in measuring and monitoring the success of your Action Plan by committing to how often you will meet, who will give feedback for each session and what timeframe you expect to have things resolved in.

Follow these simple steps and you will be well on your way to becoming an Action Orientated Listener.

Steve Burns, CA, CMC, CFP, is the president and CEO of Burns Innovation Group Inc. (www.burnsinnovation.com) and Steve Burns Inc. Chartered Accountant (www.steveburns.ca), which provide consulting and accounting services to entrepreneurs. You can reach Steve at 763-4716 or via e-mail at: steve@burnsinnovation.com or steve@steveburns.ca.

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