The Huge Costs Of Leaders That Don't Listen

"Leaders who don't listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say"

This above quote by Andy Stanley  is 100% accurate.

I've seen this so many times that I've lost count: A leader who doesn't listen and doesn't understand the enormous impact of that. 

Most leaders don't truly listen. Real listening is so rare that I've only seen it in about 1 in 20 leaders I've worked with.

In companies, listening skills are often considered "soft skills", but there is nothing more important. Nothing. 

I spoke about this exact topic at the Ultimate Experience conference in Scottsdale, Arizona last week. Since then, I've received a dozen emails from people working with leadership that doesn't listen. 

The big, largely unseen issue is that the best and most talented people will always leave the organization. The company will be left with those simply there for a paycheck.

The result: projects go over budget, scope and timeline. Morale suffers. Innovation declines. Accountability is nonexistent.

Then that same company hires expensive consultants and project managers to fix things.

But they don't have a project problem. They have a cultural problem.

Company culture is the soil in which success or failure takes root.