Listening is sharpening your axe
The playing field of leadership is the other person’s emotional system and situation. The more you know them, the more you can lead and inspire them. The challenge is that people’s greatest motivations tend to be their greatest vulnerabilities, so we tend to protect them instead of sharing them.
Thus it helps to listen, but many people who want to accomplish things tend toward action. Acting or prompting others to act rarely leads people to lower their protections and share their vulnerabilities.
You’ve probably heard the saying, often mis-attributed to Abraham Lincoln, “If I had four hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first two hours sharpening the axe.”
It says that preparation for action helps, and often the more the better.
I’ve come up with the phrase to help me and my clients:
Listening is sharpening your axe.
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