A vast majority of people feel that there is a big gap between a country’s leader and the citizens in middle-class or in poverty. It almost happens in every country. Why? It is all about the needs of each individual that haven’t been heard; hence generates disagreement and anger.
Being a leader is not an easy role. When I had a chance to watch a sharing session video from Barack Obama, a former U.S. president, his opening topic was “Listening”. Same as a book written by Alex Ferguson, a former football manager in Manchester United, his first topic in it is “Listening”. Listening is essential and is in top priority in great leaders’ mindset.
Listening – From bottom to up
Listening should not be limited to a small group of people closely surrounding the leader or representatives from small groups. A leader should try to reach and to listen to each individual under his/her management as far as possible. Take a big organization as an example. Most of the time, the leader works closely with the seniors or meets with representatives from groups because the team is too big. The leader may only aware what is happening in the higher managerial level; and may often neglect the voices from the working level. Even if the representatives convey the opinion, it may be twisted, with bias, filtered, and partially omitted because of the representatives’ own interest, own perspectives, and different ways of presentation. They cannot truly represent the needs of the people. As a result, the managerial level and working level are working within their own level with a big gap in between, which deteriorates the team’s performance.
Effective communication
Effective communication with all team members becomes essential for a modern leader. Apart from conventional face-to-face meetings, the use of modern technology may effectively achieve the purpose. E-mail, instant messenger, video conference, online forum, online poll are examples of modern tools that a leader could conveniently hear, interact, and gather opinions from each individual in his/her team. The leader could analyze the collected big data easily; and then reflect on his/her upcoming plan more accurately and effectively. During the pandemic in the past 1+ years, people are changing their mindset to adopt these modern tools and big data to manage the team more often. I opt for these tools as a second choice. Undoubtedly, conventional face-to-face meetup is still a better choice and has its own advantages too. The leader could 1) talk to or hear from his/her people directly; 2) read the facial expression; 3) feel the tone & emotion; and 4) interact with his/her people to create a bonding and collaborative working environment. The leader could indeed hear and observe what is actually happening. Unfortunately, most leaders are tied up with busy schedules or may think this kind of meetup is meaningless. I, however, encourage these leaders to squeeze his/her time to meet his/her people to check out the effect.
I had a General Manager (GM). He might have doubted his managers under him might not report the whole picture, the truth, or the reality. He purposely arranged monthly meetings with the working level only to present to him the progress of a project; but his managers were not invited. The GM understood that the working level knew the actual progress well, particularly the difficulties and problems encountered, so that he could direct his people to the right path and solution. Of course, his managers worried if any bad news was being reported by the working level; hence sat in the meeting to watch. This also gave the GM a chance to criticize his managers if any issues were not followed-up immediately before. As a result, the GM could fix the issues immediately and effectively with the whole team in a simple meeting.
Be open-minded, listen, and prepare for change
A leader should be open-minded and willing to accept different opinions in order to carry out appropriate direction for the team. The idea from the youngsters should not be neglected too. As an experienced leader, his/her mindset formed sometimes becomes a norm to him/her probably because of 1) becoming routine works; 2) unwillingness to change when enjoying in his/her own comfort zone; 3) deem unnecessary to change; and 4) strong believe that the current developed environment is good enough. However, the world is changing every second. A leader should have vision and should proactively prepare for changes all the time. Because the youngsters have fresh minds, their ideas could definitely inspire the leader for new perspectives in order to catch up with the changing world. What I observe is that the leaders in western countries seem more open to hear opinions than those in eastern countries. This phenomenon may be due to the cultural and educational differences. However, I encourage the leaders to try new ideas whenever in appropriate circumstances.
First step is not an end
Listening is only a first step. It is also an important step for a leader to show caring and concern for each individual under his/her management, in order to form a harmonious team, workplace, organization, or country. In addition, the gathered opinions could definitely help the leader to shape the team and to look for better future for the team members. Next, how to deal with different opinions and interests from the people? It is indeed a challenge for a leader…