Operationalizing Listening in Your Leadership Practice

Four weeks ago, I started my series on active listening. Today I’m posting on operationalizing listening in your leadership practice.

To make active listening habitual and impactful, leaders must institutionalize it:

• Conduct listening audits in your teams: What are you hearing vs. what’s really happening?

• Embed listening rituals in your meetings: open-floor time, rotational speaking, and post-meeting reflections.

• Model radical presence: phones down, eyes up, mind focused.

• Provide listening training: Equip managers and team leads with tactical listening frameworks (e.g., LEAPS, OARS, or SIER).

Final Thought

Mastering active listening is not about perfection — it is about practice. It requires leaders to recalibrate their internal tempo, step outside their habitual response loops, and become attuned to the undercurrents of human communication. In doing so, they do not merely manage performance — they elevate potential.

Next week, I’ll post an Active Listening Self-Assessment Tool.