JYOTI BACHANI

is a two-way process, where one person sends a message and the other person receives it. When the receiver gets the wrong message or misinterprets it, the communication breaks down. Effective communication requires the ability for both parties, the sender and receiver, to engage. In the 21st century, we are living in a highly networked environment with ease of connection. The communication methods developed in and for a hierarchical world are not right for the networked world.

Today, an effective leader is only able to lead his followers if she can articulate their true concerns and represent their shared collective ideals. The leader needs to listen to her followers in order to know their concerns. Listening is an important part of good communication. It is the missing piece in all the leadership communications methods. Listening is key in a networked world because followers are not mere sheep to be herded by the leader. We are human beings with capacity to think, feel and speak up to communicate our concerns, issues, ideas and create potential solutions too. Leaders can be more effective if they set up routines to listen to those they wish to lead. It can be as simple as setting aside time in every meeting to just check-in and ask attendees to quickly share what is up. Listening can involve active listening where the leader reflects back what she has heard to the other party. A deeper level of listening is empathetic listening, where the leaders listen not just to the word spoken but also to get to the feeling behind those words, by paying attention to the tone and other features. We need to bring our whole human self to work and by having listening sessions in organizations, we can take a step towards humanizing management.