Leadership & The 5 Levels of Listening (You Won’t Believe #5!)

Leaders know that listing is one of the cornerstones of leadership. We also tend to all struggle with it at times (or a lot!). Listening is critical to creating a space where others can step up and thrive. It is key to shifting from an “expert” or “solutions” leader. One annoying thing about listening is that you can always get better – you are never quite there! Many of you have heard of the “3 Levels of Listening”. Internal, Focused, and Global (we cover in Leading Amazing Teams). We have a recent blog post on “Global Listing While Remote” that talks about each one (if you are unfamiliar or want a refresher).

These three levels, popularized by Co-active coaching are not just a cornerstone to leadership but also to professional coaching and facilitation. We will explain these 3 levels and run through some exercises to understand them more in a leadership context. Building on these 3, we will introduce 3 additional levels from Shambhala Buddhism (non-secular). We will merge the 6 into 5 Levels of Listening and work through some exercises and explore how you might use and practice the levels more intentionally as a leader (regardless of your title).

Expect some to engage in discussions together and with us.  I’ll have a long-time friend, collaborator, and brilliant professional coach/developer (he might reverse those) with me for this session as well. I’m not totally sure yet if we agree or not on the 5.