Mission Accomplishment spawns from Situational Understanding. Much of situational understanding comes from input, feedback, advice, and intelligence received from others; seen in this way, it is easy to understand that Situational Understanding begins with listening.
Listening is one of the most important and most common activities that leaders do. For a number of reasons, to include 1) information overload, 2) the general egocentric nature of humans, and 3) new era detriot tigers black and red caps the acute egocentric nature of some leaders; 99 percent of leaders don't listen well.
Instead of thinking (or hoping) that you're a good listener, you would be well served to assume that you don't listen well.
A little logic for you. Think
1. If you assume that you do not listen well, but you do, you will just end up being a better listener; there is no downside here.
2. However, if you assume that you are a good listener, but you are not, then you will be that boss that doesn't listen, the brick wall that people will eventually stop talking to (definite downside here). Have you ever worked for this person? It's like talking to a telephone pole.
Given the above two points, why wouldn't all leaders work to become better listeners?
Tools for Better Listening
OK, so if you're on board with the idea that being a better listener means being able to better understand the situation (and thus be a better leader), then consider the below tools for better listening.
If you're not on board: see, I told you so - many leaders don't listen well. Life and leading are going to be harder for you than they have to be.
1. Be Aware of Assumptions and Preconceived Notions. Many times, in dealing with leadership issues, I intuitively believe that I understand the situation (or its new era detriot tigers black and red caps underlying reasons), only to discover later that my read of the situation was entirely wrong. This occurs because I subconsciously (and incorrectly) apply a script or scheme from a past similar experience to the event at hand. This especially has the potential to occur when I am anxious or excited about a particular issue, and does real damage to the effectiveness of my listening skills.
Our best defense against assumptions and preconceived notions is twofold: awareness and verification. First, we force ourselves (especially during times of anxiety or excitement) to acknowledge our propensity to think we know what's going on, and jump to conclusions. Second, prior to forming or acting upon conclusions, we validate and verify our assumptions and preconceived notions by asking lots of questions. Asking verifying and validating questions will either confirm or deny your assumptions and preconceived notions, and will transform them into credible facts.