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Listening Leaders: The Ten Golden Rules To Listen, Lead & Succeed

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The belief that listening is a key ingredient to success as a leadership sits on the same pedestal as Motherhood, Apple Pie, and The Flag. However, just because we respect the importance of listening doesn't mean that we know what to do...or do it very well. Now we have a guidebook.

Steil and Bommelje are widely respected as experts in the fine skills of effective listening, so they are well-qualified to write this book. Their credentials are impeccable.

The book presents ten "golden rules" of listening leadership, organized as Preparation, Principles, and Practices...which lead to taking Meaningful Action. The authors nicely tie together good listening skills and leadership, showing how each skill contributes to and supports the other. Effective listening enables you to be a good leader, and effective leadership encompasses good listening.

Page after page is filled with teaching, practical advice, and examples of how real leaders use their listening skills to enhance their work. I was struck by the broad variety of leaders cited and with what they had to share through the authors. The wise range of people used as examples in the book serves to reinforce the universality of the principles. The way the teachings of the exemplary leaders are intertwined with the balance of the text enriches the readability of the book: it's almost storytelling-a highly readable novel or collection of vignettes.

Adding value to the book is a list of the cited leaders, providing each individual's title and organization and the chapter where the leader's advice or experience is shared. The book also provides a list of resources for further research and a helpful index. Summaries at the end of each chapter make it even easier to acquire the vast knowledge included in these pages.

Recommended for current-and future-leaders who seek to strengthen their listening skills and their leadership effectiveness.

I am enjoying, "Listening Leaders". It is laid out like a well crafted sermon. The points are clear. The use of review is instructive. The illustrations are illuminating. This is not just a self-help book, it is a self-teaching book. For learning not to take place, the reader would purposely have to put a stop to it.

In Listening Leaders Manny Steil and Rick Bommelje have exhaustively researched and culled extraordinary wisdom from more than 100 leaders found in all corners of the world. And the message from corporate CEOs, military officers, political bosses, academic groundbreakers and front line employees is consistent: building and maintaining a 'culture of listening' is paramount to any and every organization's success. Drs. Steil and Bommelje
have done an exceptional job in demonstrating that listening is multifaceted and complex activity that is learnable and, like the road less traveled, can make all the difference.

~ Mark Brady, Ph.D.
Author, A Little Book of Listening Skills
and editor of The Wisdom of Listening

The authors have successfully established an integral relationship between effective listening and effective leadership. Insights, advice and strategies supplied by numerous contributors testify to a key premise of the book...Effective listening and effective leadership are inseparable. This complete and connected approach to Listening Leadership Development makes an excellent resource. It delivers what it promises........ Rules and tools for listening leaders:
to thrive on in their professional and personal lives, to develop other listening leaders and to build listening organizations

In Listening Leaders, the co-authors reveal through interviews with hundreds of accomplished leaders, the secret to their success: they learn because they listen. If you are looking to enhance your leadership abilities, this is one area that allows you to mine your employees for their ideas and also give them the highest form of recognition: listening. The leaders' quotes and models in this book will inspire and help you grow your listening skills.

Listening Leaders breaks new ground in terms of informing leaders and potential leaders on what it takes to become effective on a long-term basis. Written in extremely reader-friendly style and dripping with anecdotes and mini-case histories throughout its sparkling ten chapters, Listening Leaders offers 10 simple golden rules to listen, lead and succeed. As the author's state in the introduction, "Effective listening and effective leadership are inseparable."
Prior to this book, it is my understanding that no book on leadership devotes more than 2% to 4% of its verbiage on the important and crucial topic of listening. Yet, as the authors point out, "effective listening is imperative to anyone who desires to lead cohesive, productive, and significant teams and organizations." Towards that end, Listening Leaders becomes a must-read if you aspire to leadership in any capacity. If you work with others, and supervise, coach, manage, persuade, or otherwise influence those with whom you work, this book belongs on your shelf.

If reading is like listening, perhaps I have fallen prey to one of the non-listening bad habits described in the book. While Dr's Steil & Bommelje present a strong case for leaders to listen, their content and delivery are tedious.

For each of the 10 Golden Rules there are ten action steps, i.e 100 steps. Some of the 100 steps have additional steps and some them include additional habits. In researching this book for application for leadership development, I was hoping to find a model that could be easily communicated and grasped by others. One hundred plus items just doesn't work for me.

While I understood the the main points, I was worn down by the delivery of example after example, after example. Have you ever had a conversation with someone who takes forever to make their point and then continues to talk after the point has been made? Welcome to Listening Leaders.