Listening

Welcome to this episode of Your Morning Boost, brought to you by AWB Education. AWB Education is your partner in school leadership and is here to help you with your educational programming needs. You can find more episodes like this one, along with our offerings of support and consultation, at AWB education dot org. Here is your host, Adam Bush. Unfortunately, there is many a moment in time where I catch out of the blue that my spouse just asked me, were you listening? I want to reply with you know it was fourth down and point at the TV. But of course the happy wife, happy life stuff takes precedence, so I usually hope I can guess right and spit out some nonsense that might make sense. Of course, even when I might be right, it doesn't hide the fact that she already knew the answer to her question. I wasn't listening. Even if I was hearing her, I certainly wasn't actually listening to her. There's a subtle but huge difference in the true meaning of those to words. Now, most of us likely have many an opportunity to showcase our hearing or listening skills throughout our day at school. Are you aware at all times of which one you are actually doing. Is someone talking to you and are you hearing them or are you listening to what they are saying? It's very possible that either is perfectly acceptable based on the situation. The catch is we really need to be able to recognize when listening is vital to that moment. Then are we a good listener anyway? Someone who is really good at coaching adults has a knack for waiting until the right moment to provide some feedback, our guidance that will help the person being coached find the solution they're looking for. But this only comes with excellent listening skills. This means that the coach is taking in what the person is saying, processing what they are saying, sometimes clarifying or paraphrasing what they are saying all before in their own head, they are processing their answer. Once we start thinking about what we're going to say next, or our solution we're going to present, we actually stop actively listening. Our brains are just not able to continue to process what is coming in while we are processing what we are about to spit back out. A famous Dali Lama quote that has always meant something to me says When you talk, you are only repeating what you know, but if you listen, you may learn something new. I think this applies in our daily work more than we probably recognize. As leaders, we are tasked with having answers all of the time, and many of us see not having an answer, and especially not having an answer right away, as a sign of weakness, but honestly, not being able to actively listen may be a true weakness. We can never understand the complexity of a situation if we do not take time to listen to and investigate all of the parts of the situation. The answer will come in time, but only once we understand the problem. Are we listening to understand or are we just hearing what they are saying. This has been your morning boost, brought to you by AWB Education. Find us at awbeducation dot org to find out how we can help you with your educational programming needs. If you enjoy this episode, please take a quick minute to leave a rating and review to help us reach even more people. Otherwise, enjoy the workday, lead with your heart and we will see you next time.