David Singer, President of Thomas Large and Singer, emphasizes the importance of listening in leadership, drawing from his sales background. He stresses the value of patience and active listening to understand employee concerns, leading to better outcomes. Singer suggests focusing on building empathy in his employees, advocating for regular constructive feedback and trust-building through personal connections. He highlights the need for leaders to be approachable and present, balancing formal feedback tools with personal interactions. Singer underscores the significance of trust and humanity in fostering effective leadership and team alignment.

Action Items

-Provide constructive feedback to managers regularly.

-Carve out time to walk around and build trust with employees through personal conversations.

-Use 360-degree reviews and external leadership training to improve leadership skills.

-Develop emotional intelligence and self-awareness in high-performing team members lacking these skills.

Outline

The Importance of Active Listening

-David Singer shares advice from a manager to use the "two ears, one mouth" rule, emphasizing listening.

-He stresses the need to be patient and listen fully to employees to avoid misguided solutions., noting that leaders often know less about specific issues and should let employees communicate.

-He highlights waiting through pauses to gather more information and admits to working on patience daily.

Influencing Change and Building Trust

-David suggests writing thoughts down to improve focus and creating a safe space for employees to share openly.

-He notes that driving change requires understanding root issues and listening to all perspectives.

-Specifically he shares that credibility is key and rushing into solutions can harm trust.

Managing Talented and Building Empathy

-David shares the need to build empathy in employees; with less focus on driving performance.

-He discusses providing regular constructive feedback and managing by walking around.

-He recommends HR tools like 360-degree feedback reports help evaluate leadership and having a balance between personal connections with formalized feedback tools.

Hybrid Work and Leadership

-Singer acknowledges hybrid work challenges and emphasizes relationship-building.

-He discusses using tools like 360-degree feedback and external training to maintain rapport and understand employee needs.

Advice for Struggling Managers

-David advises struggling managers to build trust and foster humanity in leadership.

-He emphasizes the importance of personal connections and creating a safe space for employees are key.

-Christi thanks David for sharing insights on building trust and humanity in leadership.

Useful Links

Host: Christi's Web Page

Guest: Thomas, Large and Singer

Lighthouse NINE Group: Website

Contributors

Music: All The Fixings by Zachariah Hickman

Editing: tribe74