First a quote;
“** People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.**” Theodore Roosevelt
This quote has been attributed to many people including Teddy Roosevelt, Zig Ziglar, John C. Maxwell and others. It is very popular in education circles, and I believe it is oh so applicable to leaders at every level in all organizations.
People tend to judge how much a leader knows by what a leader says, their vocabulary, their examples and the words they choose, perhaps even what a leader does.
However, people tend to judge how much a leader cares by the way he/she listens… or not.
Listening is more than a reflective listening technique. It is more than paraphrasing and certainly more than parroting back what someone has said. We must communicate our listening in a way that lets the other person know we have truly understood what was said, even better if we can communicate what the other person might be feeling. That is when people feel connected. Only then will they know you care.
Have a great week!!
