Listening Leaders Archived Edition

June 28, 2006

LISTENING LEADERS GENERATE GREATNESS

Listening Leaders® serve others by generating greatness.

Enduring greatness demands a blend of persistent personal commitment, inordinate individual skill, historical opportunities, and hopefully a dash of deserved humility. True greatness is hard won and easily lost. For as William Hazlitt reminds us, “No man is truly great who is great only in his own lifetime. The test of greatness is in the pages of history.”

Listening Leaders® embrace every opportunity to generate greatness in themselves and others by listening with unparalleled zeal. To earn the title of “A Great Listener”, leaders must remember William Shakespeare’s important advice. “Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em.”

Most of the great leaders we observe are great listeners by design. Golden Circle Listening Leaders® establish the selfless goal to be the “Greatest Listener” possible.

First and foremost, they become great listeners because they choose to hone their listening attitudes and refine specific listening skills. They consistently and systematically focus on the multiple intents, thoughts, desires, and concerns of others. They exude energy in the commitment to listen fully to others. With appropriate humility and a perceptive plan, they listen to the needs and dreams of selected speakers. They control their environments and adapt to the source of each message. They are other-centered and as a result serve as historical “great listener” role models to those they lead and serve.

Second, great listeners invest significant time, energy, and talent in developing other great listeners. Listening Leaders® are never only content to say, “I am the greatest listener!” Rather, they focus on a significant circle of others and ask, “How can we be a combined collection of the greatest listeners?” In short, as communication success can never be greater than the weakest link in the communication chain, great listeners promote great listening amongst every individual they choose to lead and serve. To paraphrase Alexander Solzhenitsyn, “The salvation of mankind lies only in making ‘great listening’ the concern of all.”

Third, great Listening Leaders® focus beyond the mutual listening development of themselves and their significant circle of others. Listening greatness expands when leaders at all levels and in all arenas make a concentrated effort to promote listening greatness beyond their circle of influence. Listening greatness will only be compounded when great Listening Leaders® teach other great Listening Leaders® how to teach others the pathway to listening greatness. The need to develop “Listening Organizations” is great and opportunities are endless.

All truly great listeners appreciate the simple truth that the trail to listening greatness is neither easy nor simple. It challenges the best as the trail travels through the forests of speakers, many of whom have little to say and/or do not say it well. Although any listening trail can be traversed independently, true listening greatness is insured when great listeners travel together. Listening Leaders® generate listening greatness by thoughtfully answering eight challenging questions: “How do I rate on the Listening Greatness Scale? How do we rate on the Listening Greatness Scale? How can I become a greater listener and leader? How can we become greater listeners and leaders? What investment is required? Will the investment be made? What rewards will be realized? How will we sustain our greatness?

In simple sum, every Listening Leader’s® commitment to strive for listening greatness is a noble and unending goal. When achieved, everyone wins. Or, as Marcus Aurelius so clearly observed, “Every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.”

LISTENING LEADER KNOWLEDGE NUGGET: Listening Leaders® generate listening greatness everywhere.

Throughout the world, the audacious pronouncement of “I am the greatest!” still reminds millions of the accomplishments of the World Heavyweight Champion, Muhammad Ali. When it came to his pugilistic endeavors and triumphs, he had a point.

Born Cassius Clay, Ali’s boxing career illustrated a burning passion to be the best of all time. His victories included two Golden Glove Championships, a number of AAU titles, an Olympic Gold Medal, the World Heavyweight Championship, and adulation from boxing fans around the world. Inside the ring, Ali was a work of art where he literally could “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.” Outside the ring, Ali’s passion and commitment to his religious and political convictions reinforced his “greatness” to millions of supporters. At the same time, millions of detractors derided his actions and saw him as anything but the “greatest.” Yet having graced their cover three times, Time Magazine named Ali as 1 of the 100 “Most Important People of the Century.

Citing his religious and political convictions, Ali refused induction into the Army, with the simple position that “Despite his willingness to fight anyone, anytime, anywhere, he refused to fight the Viet Cong because he had nothing against them.” Although it cost him in many ways, Muhammad Ali assumed the position "I don't have to be what you want me to be; I'm free to be what I want.”

In a similar way, outstanding Listening Leaders® are free to be the “greatest listeners” they choose to be. Forget the bombast and braggadocio, just behave in a way that speakers everywhere simply say, “You are the greatest listener they have ever known.” In addition, behave in a way that generations to come will forever say, “You generated listening greatness in others and served all you met.” Now that is an epitaph worthy of the stone

LISTENING LEADER TIP OF THE WEEK: Shape your listening greatness in readiness of a great epitaph.

GOLDEN CIRCLE LISTENING LEADERS QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

Man is what he believes ~ Anton Chekhov
I am the greatest ~ Muhammad Ali
Great and good are seldom the same man ~ Thomas Fuller
The history of the world is but the biography of great men ~ Thomas Carlyle
A great man need not be virtuous, nor his opinions right, but he must have a firm mind , a distinctive luminous character ~ George Santayana
The price of greatness is responsibility ~ Winston Churchill

A LISTENING LEADER GIGGLE:

In the Midwest, a story is told about a great New York lawyer who was duck hunting in rural Minnesota. With dead-eyed aim the great hunter shot a duck that unfortunately fell into an adjacent farmer's field on the other side of a posted fence.

As the lawyer climbed over the fence, an elderly farmer drove up on his tractor and asked the lawyer what he was doing. The litigator responded, "I shot a duck and it fell in your field. I'm simply going to retrieve it."

The old farmer replied. "This is my property, it’s posted, and no one can come on my land unless I give them permission.”

The indignant lawyer responded, “Look, I am one of the greatest trial lawyers in New York City and, if you don’t give me permission to get the duck that I shot, I'll sue you for everything you own."

The old farmer listened carefully, then smiled and said, "Apparently, you don't know how we do things here in Minnesota. We settle small disagreements like this with the Three-Kick Rule." Hearing something new, the lawyer asked, "What is the Three-Kick Rule?" The farmer replied. "Well, first I kick you three times and then you kick me three times, and so on, back and forth, until someone gives up."

The great big-city attorney quickly thought about the proposed contest and decided that he could easily beat the old codger and agreed to abide by the local custom.

The old farmer slowly climbed down from the tractor and approached the younger urban hunter. His first kick to the shin had the lawyer hopping around on one foot when suddenly the farmer planted the toe of his heavy work boot into the lawyer's groin and dropped him to his knees. The barrister was flat on his belly when the farmer's third kick to a kidney nearly caused him to pass out. The lawyer summoned every bit of his will and managed to get to his feet and said, "Okay, you old coot now it's my turn."

The old farmer smiled and said, "Naw, I give up. You can have the duck."

Apparently greatness is where you find it, and great listeners know you should never play the other man’s game.

A LISTENING LEADERS KUDOS:

Kudos to Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates who have listened to their hearts and generated a model of how the greatest of wealth share their wealth through meaningful giving

BECOME CERTIFIED TO TEACH LISTENING LEADERSHIP IN YOUR ORGANIZATION. For certification details, go to www.ListeningLeaders.com

WE ARE LISTENING and invite your action:

Together, we can change the listening attitudes, skills, and knowledge of leaders throughout the world. We appreciate and invite your assistance in expanding our listening leader’s connections. Eight simple steps in advancing this important movement include:

Create a three-step model for generating listening greatness.
Forward this newsletter to your children, grandchildren, friends and colleagues. More important, invite them to Subscribe to the “complimentary and weekly” newsletter by going to www.listeningleaders.com
Send us your listening leader insights, examples and stories.
Start a Listening Leaders Reading and Discussion Group. Invite your Librarian to purchase our Award winning LISTENING LEADER book.
As meeting, conference, and convention attendees spend the bulk of their time listening, please let others know of our availability to Keynote Conventions and customize Listening Leader Workshops.
Invite us to identify specific needs for listening development of leaders in your organizations.
Ask about our proven listening leader training programs and our customized in-house train-the-trainer strategies and our new Certification program.

We can help, we are committed, and we are listening.
Listen, Lead On & Make Today Count! – Manny & Rick
__________________________________________________________________

LISTENING LEADERS: THE TEN GOLDEN RULES
TO LISTEN, LEAD & SUCCEED

By Dr. Lyman K. Steil
& Dr. Richard K. Bommelje

Publisher: Beaver’s Pond Press
(ISBN 1-59298-073-2)

A pioneering book that directly connects listening with leadership.Based on more than 50 collective years of work with listening leaders throughout the world, Dr. Steil and Dr. Bommelje have created 10 practical, proven, and priceless rules to enhance everyone's listening and leadership success. Although outstanding leaders are outstanding listeners, most leaders have neglected the development of their listening attitudes, skills and knowledge.

“This is the most significant book ever written on listening and leadership and will profit leaders at all levels in all types of organizations and enterprises.” Dr. Ralph Nichols, Father of the Field of Listening

ORDER YOUR COPY at www.ListeningLeaders.com or www.amazon.com

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Dr. Lyman K. (Manny) Steil
25 Robb Farm Road
St. Paul, MN 55127
651-483-3597
LKS@ListeningLeaders.com

Dr. Richard K. (Rick) Bommelje
8530 Amber Oak Dr
Orlando, FL 32817
407-679-7280
RKB@ListeningLeaders.com

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