SuperVision

It happened again. Another person in another workshop raised the problem of the boss who's a lousy listener. It came up when I asked some mid-level managers what their bosses could do to help them improve their work. The answer was: Give us their full focus. You know, single-task -- with the single task being ME.

It helps when bosses:

• Look at the person they're talking to, not the computer; back away from the keyboard.
  
• Disconnect from whatever tends to distract them.
  
• Don't interrupt when someone has barely begun to share an idea.
• Don't change the subject from the issue at hand to long personal anecdote.
  
• Let the person they're talking to know they really heard and understood what was said.
  

If you work for a lousy listener, you know exactly what a "conversation" with that person looks like. If you ARE the offender, you might not.

So, I dedicate the following SuperVision video to lousy listeners everywhere -- as I demonstrate what happens when people attempt to capture your elusive "full focus":


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Was that bad actress actually YOU in real life? If so, there's help. You can check out a column I wrote some years ago called "Ten Lousy Listeners and What We Can Learn from Them" for some tips. Better still, you could take the online "Lousy Listeners" course I developed for News University. The course is free; all you need to do is register on the site.

Or, you could heed the advice of one of the best listeners I know, Tom Huang. Tom is the assistant managing editor for Sunday and enterprise at The Dallas Morning News. He's spending a year with us at The Poynter Institute as an Ethics and Diversity Fellow. Whenever I talk with Tom, I marvel at his attentiveness. He's a quiet leader who makes an impact with the quality, not the quantity, of what he says. His ability to zero in on people he's with and leave them thinking their time with him really mattered also makes him an effective listener. Here's Tom on listening skills:

If you're receiving this via e-mail newsletter and have trouble viewing the video, please use the video player on the SuperVision page.

I sincerely believe most lousy listeners aren't trying to offend. They're unaware of how their actions make others feel -- until someone brings it to their attention. Maybe it's time to share this SuperVision with a colleague who will accept it as constructive feedback.

Can you hear me now?