Are we listening - A story

Late last summer a kid in his teens walked up to his father, who was comfortably placed in his chair and was reading a book. The kid asked, “Hey dad I have a couple of questions. Can you answer them? The father replied, “I am busy at the moment why don’t you try and figure it yourself in the meantime.”

After sometime the kid walks up again and this time his father was busy gardening, and said, “While I was working on my questions, I have got an idea do you wanna hear?” The father was too focused on gardening and replied, “Yeah I am sure it must be great, just keep it with you for a while and we can discuss it may be over dinner.”

Later the kid again knocks at the room while his father was busy arranging his papers and asked him, “I have come up with some new initiatives and if we discuss”, the father took a pause and asked him, “Are you sure about the changes?” The kid was taken aback by the response and we not able to come up with a concrete answer and left. 

After a while, the father saw the kid leaving the house with his bag and some papers. The father rushed to him, and asked him, “Where are you going and what about the discussion on his ideas, questions and suggestions?”The kid replied, “I think I have got my answers.”

• Looking back at the story, it reminded me of how an employee is treated in many organizations. Are leaders humble enough to listen to the problems, ideas and initiatives by employees? Leadership is often too busy with so many work engagements that they don’t have time to spare for their teams. We are so engaged in urgent things often missing to address the important ones (human capital), unless important issues become urgent.
• One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say. Humble leadership and participative management starts from inviting ideas and exploring them before parking them amicably. 
•  Leaders are responsible to ensure that employees are heard, lot of thoughts fall through the cracks of poor leadership and later may prove to be critical for the organizations. One of the most important traits of effective listening starts with an intent to understand and accept different opinions. 

Once the damage is done, and an employee resigns mentally from an organization it comes much later on an email. Everyone including the HR is asked to seek input, feedback, exit interviews and do post-analysis. We miss to understand that the ship has already sailed, and because we ignored to address them much earlier they are now like the kid who wants to move to a place where he will be heard. 

The moral of the story and its connection with our professional world is to ensure that we remain humane when dealing with the human capital and for the organizations to establish methods where ideas, problems, and initiatives can be freely communicated and acknowledged.

Closing the communication loop of internal communications is as important as dealing with an exigency.  

Be receptive, be open, and be humble to people and you will be surprised with the results, they are able to deliver.