October 23, 2025
Mark Cole, CEO of Maxwell Leadership, often says everyone deserves to be well-led. A foundational part of being well-led is feeling valued within the organization. Communication is the key and is a meaningful, measurable, practical, and transferable skill. The problem is, many, if not all of us, have often had conversations with our leaders where we felt we were only being heard, not listened to. Research bears this personal feeling out on a global level. Gallup found in a recent study that among nearly 15,000 employees, only 16% said the last conversation with their manager was extremely meaningful.” Axios HQ in a recent White paper 8 pressing priorities for execs and comms leaders in 2024 lists several challenges facing society and organizations . One of their key recommendations was to “double down “on communication with employees. Jessica Tyler, writing for Gallup in an article entitled The Value of Conversations With Employees, ” states that talk isn’t cheap. Meaningful exchanges between managers and employees boost the bottom line. Noted that “Fancy action plans don’t create engagement; ongoing two-way dialogue creates engagement.” The important part of the two-way dialogue is not eloquence; it is listening that builds connection, which builds engagement, which builds trust relationships, which enhance learning and long-term sustainable success in any organization. Tyler further cites Gallup data showing that effective communication and active listening can reduce active disengagement at work to 1%. The data sadly indicates that workers who feel a lack of meaningful connection are 40% more inclined to be actively disengaged.
Listening is a skill. When performed correctly, it allows you to build trusted relationships.
Dale Carnegie
This Thursday’s Leadership Insight is the first in a multi-edition series on effective leadership communication. The foundation of effective communication for a leader of any organization is to learn and apply present listening in their leadership practice. This article will describe the importance of listening in meaningful communication for leaders and the challenges of listening. We will discuss learning to listen, considering the different levels of listening we have all experienced, and five practical, immediately usable, and transferable steps will be shared for the leader who gives the first gift of present listening.
Leadership expert John Maxwell notes, “Listening is not just a skill. It is a leadership discipline” that shapes trust, connection, and impact. Present listening means being fully here, not to reply or fix, but to understand and honor what another person is saying. As Stephen Covey taught in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, when leaders “seek first to understand,” they give one of leadership’s most valuable gifts—the gift of presence. Present listening is that gift, and it keeps giving back through stronger relationships, deeper insights, and better decisions.
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What Listening Really Means for Leaders
When a leader practices present listening, communication shifts from exchange to connection. Harvard Business Review research finds that listening well allows leaders to gather unseen information, release tension during conflict, and build connection and commitment within teams. Gallup’s 2025 Workplace Report shows that 70% of team engagement is directly influenced by the manager’s behavior.Leaders who listen drive higher engagement, lower turnover, and stronger performance cultures.
Listening is a challenge for leaders.
Peter Nulty of Fortune Magazine notes, “Of all the skills of leadership, listening is the most valuable and one of the least understood. Most captains of industry listen only sometimes, and they remain ordinary leaders. But a few, the great ones, never stop listening.” Listening is rarely taught or practiced, or understood. Also, many leaders believe they must be the fastest solution to answer people. Fast solutions don’t always lead to listening.
“To say that a person feels listened to means a lot more than just their ideas get heard. It’s a sign of respect. It makes people feel valued.”
— Deborah Tannen, Georgetown University
Listening is therefore not passive; it’s an active form of influence and a foundation of trust requiring the leader to be 110% present to be an observant, curious present listener. Learning to be a present listener will first require understanding the different levels of listening we were exposed to in our leadership development. Stephan Covey, in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, wrote of five levels of listening. All of us have experienced and probably used these levels. The five levels are described below. Have you experienced them before? How did you feel when you experienced that level of listening?
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Stephen Covey’s Levels of Listening
Covey identified five progressive levels of listening that characterize how deeply we connect to others :
Ignoring
Not listening at all.
Pretending Listening –
Offering surface cues but mentally disengaged. Possibly sending texts or emails, watching their screens.
Selective Listening
The leader responds only to items that catch their attention, immediately interrupting with a solution, direction, or correction. The leader often talks over you. The team leader cuts you off, looks at their phone or watch, and ends abruptly, saying they will “get back to you later.”
Attentive Listening
The leader nods, smiles, and makes fleeting eye contact. They appear to be listening to you and paying attention. The leader even asks some questions. Their only remark to any thoughts is, “We will see.”You sense the leader is “going through the motions.”They do not listen to or understand what you said, or even care about it. You know they probably won’t respond to you.
Present/Empathic Listening
A leader commits to listening 110%. They are demonstrating a commitment to listening and respecting the speaker. The leader maintains eye contact, leans in to listen, and takes notes. The leader displays a learner’s genuine curiosity by using powerful questions (next week’s topic) to connect, engages in the discussion, and expands learning. They seek to understand feelings, meaning, and intent. Present listening, where leaders move beyond responding to truly connecting, requires slowing down, removing distractions, and valuing understanding over efficiency.
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Present Listening is a gift that keeps on giving.
Research by Zenger and Folkman shows that leaders recognized as excellent listeners are rated among the most trustworthy and motivating in their organizations. Their teams are 260% more motivated because they feel both heard and valued. Listening communicates respect, safety, and belonging—essentials for innovation and engagement. Present listeners gain insights others miss, spot blind spots earlier, lead with greater empathy and strategic awareness, and build connections and engagement.
Five Practices to Become a More Present Listener
- Practice Silence, Curiosity, and Observation
Remember that listening = silence and being observant, a curious learner, even a detective seeking to pick up all the clues — verbal, nonverbal, and feeling — in a conversation will demonstrate respect and enhance learning.
- Put Away Distractions.
Silence devices, maintain eye contact, and focus on the speaker as if they are the only person in the room.
- Pause Before Responding.
Create space to think, reflect, and ensure the other person feels fully heard before offering solutions or judgments.
- Ask Inquiring Questions
. Use curious, open-ended questions that deepen understanding rather than steer the conversation. Paraphrase what was said to confirm accurate understanding and to demonstrate empathy.
- Follow Through.
Listening without follow-up erodes trust. Acknowledge what was heard and take meaningful action to show that listening matters and that the speaker matters.
Present listening is not simply about hearing—it is about being present to the person speaking. When leaders commit to listening presently and with empathy, they are observant and model the kind of culture where people don’t just speak—they feel safe contributing and valued. The first step in transforming communication into connection and influence into impact is practicing present listening.
The Leadership Questions for you then are
Which of the five practices can you start today to be a present listener?
What level of listening do you use?
Are you really listening?