A Time to Listen

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about learning. We’ve spent most of the past two years in a virtual environment, where many of us have felt a lack of community due to our forced isolation. Even those brief “water cooler” moments with fellow employees used to help us sharpen our communication skills and spur brainstorming.

If you’re like me, a day spent talking to my dogs just wasn’t cutting it. As I shared in the thick of 2020, I’m an Extrovert with a capital E, so the virtual hugs also weren’t doing the trick.

This pandemic era has reinforced for me the importance of building and nurturing community, and being a lifelong learner. I’ve found creative ways to stay engaged in stimulating conversations and taken classes (both creative writing and behavioral economics!) that have challenged my ways of thinking.

At the Hazen Institute for Leadership Training (HILT), we’ve also found creative ways to offer both virtual and in-person trainings and presentations to strengthen your leadership skills. No matter the setting, we incorporate interactive elements and adaptive learning to best match your organization’s culture.

For example, we recently convened a virtual 90-minute training for the Board of Trustees of a prominent national organization and a 2-hour face-to-face Board training for a gold standard regional affordable housing group. Both highlighted the importance of being the strongest possible ambassador, with the primary focus on sharpening their active listening skills.

The advantages of virtual included the ability to involve people across the country and around the world from the comfort of their own home, and utilizing breakout rooms and the Chat space for a highly interactive session. For the face-to-face training, many of the board members were meeting each other in person for the first time, which was highly valuable and valued, plus the generative discussion created by 1-on-1 and full group exercises was extremely well received.

So what would happen to our world if we all spent more time listening than talking? Whether face-to-face, virtual or hybrid, our learners have found the active listening module to be the most helpful and applicable to every aspect of their work with their constituents, colleagues, supervisor, staff and donors.

Practicing intensive active listening is one of the most important values we hold at HILT. It’s a core element of every training we provide, because we’ve witnessed the power of how much it can grow and strengthen social impact organizations of all shapes and sizes. And this knowledge is too important for us to keep to ourselves! In the coming months, we’ll use this space on our Insights blog to bring you our top five (5) active listening tips.

Join me here on Insights as we explore together practical ways to use active listening in all aspects of your life. I believe that in today’s challenging and often polarized world, now—more than ever—is the time to prioritize listening.

Interested in learning more about HILT? Check us out here: www.hazeninc.com/hazen-institute-for-leadership-training.