Listening Leaders

[ListeningLeaders]

Listening Leaders Newsletter



October 3, 2007

LISTENING LEADERS MAGNIFY MEMORY MORTAR

Listening Leaders® constantly measure, mine, and magnify the importance of memory muscles in the process of listening and leading. For a simple fact remains: Memory is the mortar that resides between each segment of the stages of Sensing, Interpreting, Evaluating, and Responding (SIER). Reflection on the stages of the listening process clarifies one thing: storing, or remembering what was sensed, understood and judged, always impacts the listener’s response. Memory mortar deserves everyone’s attention.

Dr. Ben Carson, a world-renowned pediatric neurosurgeon and author of The Big Picture, describes the incredible capacity of the human mind. As Dr. Carson notes, “The human brain is the most complex organ system in the universe, as it can process 2 million bytes of information per second. That’s how amazing and complex the human brain is. Yet we have people walking around talking about how they cannot remember.”

Listening Leaders® understand two important facts about the essence and importance of memory in listening and leading. First, magnified memory is critical to the complete process of effective listening. Short-term memory is central to moving through the full stages of listening. For when short-term memory fails at any level, the complete listening process will automatically fail. Moreover, when long-term memory fails, short-term memory success matters little.

Second, Listening Leaders® constantly and systematically exercise their memory muscles. They start by focusing on the task of remembering what others say. They make a commitment to “Plan to Report.” They eliminate distractions. They identify and adapt to the speaker’s organizational structure, and when possible, they make written notes. When they listen to names, they “Capture and Utilize.” When they listen to numbers, they “Chunk the Hunk” by breaking longer numbers into smaller units. They enhance their memory by the masterful development and use of mnemonic techniques. For the agile mind, there is no limit to developing acronyms and mnemonic strategies to enhance both your short-term and long-term memory.

The key to listening success simply requires that Listening Leaders® make a commitment and establish a plan to remember what they listen to. For soon, someone will ask you to respond to what they just said!

Listening Leaders® measure, manage, and magnify their memory mortar.

Memory is indeed a strange but necessary thing. For as Grandma Moses wrote in her My Life’s History, “What a strange thing is memory, and hope; one looks backward, the other forward. The one is of today; the other is of the tomorrow. Memory is history recorded in our brain, memory is a painter, and it paints pictures of the past and the day.” The eternal question for all listeners centers on what do we remember and what do we forget?

With the persistent flood of messages, consistently sent the listener’s way, the listeners challenge lies in sorting the wheat from the chaff, and choosing that which is worth remembering. It is nearly impossible not to remember some messages as they are repeated over and over and over, ad nausea. In addition, many speakers guarantee to be remembered by their clever verbiage. For as the French satirist, Jean de La Bruyre suggests, “To endeavor to forget anyone is a certain way of thinking of nothing else.” Should you doubt such power we invite you to pause for a moment and think about anything in the world, but Don’t Think About a White Elephant.

Although the task is great, Listening Leaders® incessantly invest in developing their powers of memory. For the profit resides in remembering the advice of the British writer, William Trevor: “The nice thing about having memories is that you can choose.” Obviously, without memory, there is no choice.

LISTENING LEADER TIP OF THE WEEK: Exercise your listening Memory Muscle

GOLDEN CIRCLE LISTENING LEADERS QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

  • Memories are hunting horns whose sound dies on the wind ~ Guillaume Apollinaire
  • Memory is the thing you forget with ~ Alexander Chase
  • Thanks for the memory ~ Leo Robin
  • Everyone complains of his memory, but no one complains of his judgment ~ Duc de la Rochefoucauld

A LISTENING LEADER GIGGLE:

It has been said that elephants are blessed with a long memory. If true, there is a lesson in the following story that Listening Leader® Matt Koehnen, General Sales Manager at Lexus of Maplewood, shared.

It is told that in 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University. As he hiked through the bush, he came upon a young bull elephant standing with his right leg raised in the air. As the elephant seemed distressed, Mbembe approached it very carefully and discovered a large piece of wood deeply imbedded in the elephant’s foot.

Carefully and gently he took his hunting knife and slowly removed the hurtful piece of wood. When Mbembe was finished, the elephant gingerly lowered his foot and with a curious look on his face stared at Mbembe for several tense moments. Mbembe stood frozen with the thought that he was about to be trampled to death. However, eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. The moment was seared deep in his memory bank and Mbembe never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

“Twenty years later, Mbembe was visiting the Chicago Zoo. When he came to the elephant enclosure, one of the elephants turned and walked over to where Mbembe was standing. The large bull elephant stared at Mbembe, repeatedly lifted his right front foot, and trumpeted loudly.

Mbembe was mesmerized. Remembering his encounter and selfless service to an elephant in Kenya in 1986, Mbembe couldn’t help wondering if this could possibly be the same elephant. Remembering the bond he had forged, Mbembe summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing, and made his way into the elephant enclosure. He walked directly up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped his trunk around one of Mbembe’s legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.

In the aftermath, someone concluded, “It probably wasn’t the same elephant.”

LISTENING LEADERS KUDOS

Kudos to Coach Maas and all of the old-timers who still seem to remember everything. For those who believe that one’s memory diminishes with age, you should meet 90 year-old Mr. LeRoy Maas. A long time high school teacher and coach, Mr. Maas was the “Water that primed the pump of thousands of students in Albert Lea, Minnesota.” At his latest birthday gathering, Mr. Maas amazed hundreds of his former students by proving once again that memory does not have to fail. Although his student’s faces and bodies had changed over the many years, his memory for names and long-past events remained incredibly sharp. When asked how he remembered the important names, facts and details of so many people, Mr. Maas simply replied, “Every student was an individual worth listening to, and I liked every one of them, regardless of who they were. It is easy to remember if you care.” Congratulations and Happy 90th Birthday to Mr. LeRoy Maas. He is a role model worth following.

BECOME CERTIFIED TO TEACH LISTENING LEADERSHIP IN YOUR ORGANIZATION.

You will become fully equipped to deliver a unique and proven Workshop that provides practical and measurable results. For certification details, go to www.ListeningLeaders.com

ORDER YOUR “LISTENING LEADERS WORKSHOP ‘IN A BOX’.

You don't have to wait for the next live Listening Leaders® Workshop! The entire workshop is in a format that you can take at your own pace in the comfort of your own office or home. For 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:
  1. Develop your memory.
  2. Send us your listening leader insights, examples and stories.
  3. Start a Listening Leaders Reading and Discussion Group. Invite your Librarian to purchase our Award winning LISTENING LEADER book.
  4. 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.
  5. Invite us to identify specific needs for listening development of leaders in your organizations.
  6. Ask about our proven listening leader training programs and our customized in-house train-the-trainer strategies and our new Certification program.
  7. 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

    Listening Leaders is a weekly e-mail newsletter for people who understand the value of Listening Leadership in their life.

    It is brought to you by
    the INTERNATIONAL LISTENING LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE
    We welcome your comments, suggestions and questions.
    Please e-mail: ClientServices@ListeningLeaders.com.

    Also, please visit our website: www.ListeningLeaders.com

    Join our Golden Circle of Listening Leaders who are spreading Listening Leadership attitude, skills and knowledge worldwide! Forward your copy to anyone you believe will benefit from reading The Listening Leaders!

    COPYRIGHT AND REPRINTS
    Reprint permission is granted when the following credit appears: "© International Listening Leadership Institute. Reprinted with permission from ‘“The Listening Leaders Newsletter,' a weekly Internet newsletter”. For your own personal subscription, go to www.ListeningLeaders.com"

    PRIVACY STATEMENT
    Your e-mail address is absolutely confidential. We will NEVER give, sell or share your address with anyone.

    Subscribe Cancel Update

    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

    © 2007 by International Listening Leadership Institute.
    All rights reserved