A leader in order to overcome hurdles and generate efficiency needs to imbibe one critical attribute and that is listening. But listening for what? Listening for potential.

Listening for potential is choosing not to fall into the trap of getting absorbed into others problems. It is all about listening and working with people to solve their own problems. The role of a leader is to recognize and acknowledge that people tend to have the answers; and their job is to help lead them to think towards those answers. To listen with potential requires listening to people with the assumption that they have all the tools and can simply derive solutions by thinking out aloud.

Every moment has potential for a leader to choose to listen with potential. It is all about a shift of a mind-set and believing in others capabilities. Giving the solution is efficient but not effective as this would only create a boss dependency paradigm.

Let’s throw light on this concept with an example, that of a leader within the sports industry. This leader when facing challenges with any team member be it performance or otherwise has one key rule, to listen not to provide solutions but to probe the team members to solve their own problems.

At one given point of time, a team member was struggling on a project. He came up to say that he felt he had lost reigns over the project and did not know what to do about it. It was effecting his performance and hindering his abilities to deliver.

Instead of reacting and looking at providing solutions the leader, first asked him to provide in-depth details of the situation. From there he threw back reflective questions like “How can I best help you?”, “What are your major concerns?”, “What seems to be the main obstacle?” etc. The questions revolved more around the “how’s” and “what’s” rather than the “why’s” and “here’s what I recommend”. This made the team member run through a funnel of developing his own solution through a deductive method and gaining confidence and control to solve the problem.

The leader first listened to the entire situation and then listened for potential. He assumed the team member had all the answers and throwing the right questions would help him create his own solution foundation. This resulted in the team member gaining confidence and feeling competent and further prevented the leader from entering into the trap of focusing on others problems.

When listening for potential it is important to focus on the problem and refrain from providing solutions. It involves effective questioning, which are open-ended and not leading. There’s no one size fits all when it comes to asking the questions. They will vary depending on the situation and circumstances.

It all boils down to leaders stepping back and listening not just hearing. It about listening to understand the problem and then supporting others to bring out the best they have to offer, suspending judgment all the way through.

Change the way you listen and become a highly effective Leader. Learn the science behind driving performance and effectiveness through potential listening; enroll in the Neuroscience program today.