Listen to Lead The Power of Transformational Listening Part 1

Leadership N-Sight: Transformational Listening Part 1 - The Power of Presence

In this episode of Leadership N-Sight, SparkleJoy Coach Miranda introduces the concept of transformational listening, emphasizing its importance for both personal and professional growth. She explains how listening with presence—fully engaging in the moment and setting aside distractions—can elevate leadership skills, deepen workplace relationships, and create a more innovative and supportive environment. Miranda highlights practical steps and real-life examples to illustrate how this practice fosters trust, enhances communication, and improves team dynamics. Join her as she embarks on part one of this three-part series aimed at taking your leadership and career to new heights.

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00:00 Introduction to Transformational Listening

00:54 The Importance of Listening in Leadership

03:39 Engaging with Presence

04:56 Practical Tips for Active Listening

07:47 Building Trust Through Listening

09:41 Real-Life Example of Listening with Presence

12:13 Conclusion and Commitment to Practice

Transcript

 📍   Welcome to Leadership N-Sight, where today it's going to be listen to lead the power of transformational listening.  I'm your SparkleJoy Coach Miranda, and I want to welcome you to today's session.

Part one, again, it's going to be All about transformational listening if you've been following me I do a lot of talks about listening because it is that serious It's that serious one as a human being Two, it's definitely this serious as a leader. We're going to talk about listen to lead The power of transformational listening and transformational listening is a key for all career people who aspire, especially to be able to elevate their leadership.

Now, listening is one of the most. Underrated yet it is extremely a powerful tool for an employee and it is just as if not more powerful as a leader and you can develop this tool. It's not just about hearing words. It's about engaging with people around you. It's a totally different way and it. takes practice.

Now, a lot of you out there saying, Miranda, Sparkle Joy, Coach, I am great at listening and I'm going to challenge you to be even better than what you think you are. Now, the coaches out there, know, we know, we understand it is a practice skill and you don't just pick this skill up overnight.  Please be patient with yourself, but I need you especially if you are a leader or you are looking to move into the leadership ranks, I need you to practice this skill again. It's not just about hearing words, it's about engaging with people that are around you. It's also about interpreting the unspoken and using the Insight to make better decisions and to be able to build stronger teams.

 So this session isn't just for leaders. It is for everyone if you're on a job, if you speak to other people, listen, not even in your family.

If you speak to other people, this is a skill set that I need you to embrace and I need you to work on. Listening is one of the most understated yet powerful tools that you can develop as a leader.

It's not just about hearing words. It's about engaging with people around you. It's about interpreting the unspoken words and using that insight to make better decisions and build stronger connections.   📍 , We are live. Please do not forget to like and subscribe from whatever  ever platform you are viewing us from.

 We appreciate you. We do not take it lightly that you are spending some of your time with us. If you ever have a question, feel free to reach out on our social media platforms, myself, my team, we do look at the comments and we, we do really want to engage with you. If there's ever a time again, if you have a question or if there is a topic where you're like SparkleJoy Coach Miranda, I would love for you to cover X, Y, and Z hit us up.

Let's see if we can do that for you. If it is definitely within the realm of what I do, we will try to get that out there for you.  Now back to what we're going to do today. 

. For us today, it's going to be listening with presence. This is going to be part one of part three. It's so important that we listen with presence.  In today's fast paced work environment, leaders often find themselves, what are y'all doing out there? You're multitasking. And we also know that can hinder genuine connections with our teams.

Now, our goal is going to explore how adopting the practice of listening with presence can not only elevate, elevate you on your job, elevate our leadership skills, but it will also deepen the relationships we have with our colleagues, fostering a more collective and innovative workplace and don't you want to be in a workplace where you feel supported?

You feel that you can be the best version of yourself. I want that for you leaders. I want you to want that for your people too.  Our first point is what you see in or what you hear depending on because you could be listening on from our podcast. So what you're hearing or what you're seeing is a listening with presence.

Now let's talk  a little bit about what that means. Listening with presence means Fully engaging in the moment during conversations Setting aside distractions. That's right. I said it setting aside Distractions if you want to be fully engaged in the moment That means you need to set your phone down.

That means you need to cut the tv off Maybe you're home and you're talking to a loved one cut the tv off Off if that means if you're in an office and just depending if you can that means to Close the door a little bit so that if there's someone walking past you That you don't Get distracted by people walking past whatever you have to do to set aside distractions Sometimes for those who are on teams and you're a virtual maybe that means if you're on a team You And you're interacting with a person.

And you're hearing these dings, dings, dings, and that, of course, is going to make you want to look to see what's coming in. Oh, am I getting something? Maybe that means close your Outlook, close your email, close the applications that are on your desktop. But if you want to listen with presence, you must be present.

And you must take away the distractions and so giving our complete attention to the speaker will be able to put you in a position to listen with presence. It's about being mindful and intentional in our interactions, conveying respect. And how about that genuine interest?

When is the last time you spoke to someone, and think about maybe your friends, and you know they really weren't paying attention. It was, oh yeah. And then, then they have to say, wait a minute, say that, say that whole thing again. Say that whole thing again. Right?  Okay.  In order to listen with presence, you must be fully present.

This practice requires us to temporarily set aside our own thoughts, our own judgments, and listen. If you're not used to setting aside your own thoughts, so if there's someone talking to you, And you have a conversation already  running in your head.

You are not practice being present. That's not mindfulness.  If someone is literally talking to you and your thoughts are going, going, going, you are not being fully present. And I know some of you are like, I am, I, I am and I'm going to tell you you're not and we will just have to agree to disagree because the studies out there are showing you are not fully present.

Again, about being mindful. It's about setting aside just temporarily your own thoughts, those judgments, those distractions. And that is what's going to allow for you to be present and it's going to allow for this richer, meaningful exchange.

And then I want you to understand, especially for leaders, leaders, when you all practice With being present, the impact that it has in the workplace is going to be profound. This approach truly builds trust. It's going to help your team members feel valued.

It's going to lead to that open and honest communication. Employees are more likely to share ideals, concerns, and feedback when they feel heard and understood. That's exactly why I am saying at times you must put down the distractions because it's that important. People should feel valued and if that means you need to put your phone down so that you can do that or if that means that, again, if you're  on zoom or on teams.

If that means that you need to close some of the other programs that are running, then you need to do that. And as a result, when you are in this type of environment where people feel that their voice is being heard, trust and believe. This is going to build that trust that the team members need to feel valued.

 this is going to create that environment where employees are more likely to share their ideals, their concern and feedback when they feel that their voice is being heard.  This fosters a collection of collaboration, ensuring creativity  and problem solving. Furthermore, when leaders model this behavior, this is what sets the example for the entire team, creating an environment where everyone feels safe to express themselves.

And this  Ultimately enhances that team dynamic. It increases productivity and leads to overall better performance. Now let me give you a practical example of this. Because I need you to understand why we're talking about this today. Let me share with you this story that shows this particular ideal. Just imagine a boss was having trouble getting his team to work together.

And in meetings, he started to notice his team members didn't seem interested, and they were afraid to say what they thought. thought. Now, if you're a leader out there, you know  when your team is afraid to speak up, and this is the part where we have to be real with ourselves and be real with the moments that are happening around us.

And this is what was happening in this situation. They could tell. period that there were members that didn't want to speak up.  This particular leader, he chose to use what he learned about listening with presence after going to a workshop . And in one of his one on one meetings with the team member, he put down his phone, that's right, looked The person in the eye and encourage them to speak freely without being interrupted.

How many of you out there sat down with your supervisor or you've sat down with your boss and as soon as you say something or you say something that maybe irritated your boss, then they interrupted you. Well, this is not how you're going to be because you're leading with presence. And even if someone is saying something that is slightly rubbing you the wrong way, you're going to stay in the conversation and you're going to lead with presence.

You're not going to interrupt them. Let them finish their thought even if it irritates you, I need you to let them finish their thought if you want to build trust. Now if you don't want to build trust, go and do what you're doing and you're going to get the same results, okay?  But if you want to build trust, let them speak.

Encourage them to speak freely. Now that worker left feeling like they were heard. So they talked about some problems that they were having at work. And this opened the dialogue for the manager to understand what the bigger problems  were having But it just didn't stop there.

It led to solutions That could be used right away to make things run smoothly and over time this little change ended up being a huge change because this made the relationships in the workplace better and it made the team so much stronger.  I want to go ahead and wrap this up. Listening with presence is a vital leadership skill that can transform our interactions and improve our organizational culture by being fully present for our team members. We build trust facilitate honest communication And we're able to cultivate an environment a collaborative expressive environment I encourage each and every one of you to practice this technique in your conversations, do it today and observe the differences it makes.

As we conclude, let's commit to having conversations today and observe the difference that it makes.I awlays  s end with the quote, and today is no different.  When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen. 

Now, this quote underscores the importance of Fully engaging in listening.   📍 Do not forget to like and subscribe.   Join me next week for part two of lead to listen  the power of transformational listening.

You deserve nothing but the best. It's my goal to ensure that you move to your next level.  📍 Let's take your career to new heights toge