EP 172 | Listen to Understand, Not to Reply | Tom Lawrence

How effective are you as a people leader, and how do you actually evaluate that effectiveness? What happens when you involve your team in creating the vision instead of just sharing it with them? How do you listen—are you listening to reply, or listening to understand? 

Transform your leadership approach on this episode of the Work Positive Podcast with Dr. Joey Faucette and Tom Lawrence. Tom is originally from Liverpool, now living in London, and is the creator of the Highly Effective Leader framework. After experiencing old-school, micromanaging, dictator-style leadership early in his career in the UK rail industry, Tom embarked on a self-taught leadership development journey starting in 2015. Today he helps leaders develop into highly effective leaders who create other leaders. Listen as Tom explores:

☀️ Why no one was developing him as a leader, so he had to start developing himself ☀️ How involving the team in vision creation transforms buy-in and ownership ☀️ The critical difference between listening to reply versus listening to understand ☀️ Why asking "How do you feel being part of this team?" reveals your true culture ☀️ How open questions and coaching style dig deeper to help people solve problems themselves

Tom transforms how leaders think about effectiveness by proving that highly effective leaders measure their success by how well they develop current and future leaders into highly effective leaders themselves.

🔑 Key Insight: "When you listen to reply, you're sort of hearing them. But when you listen to understand, that's when you're really listening. Don't go in there and solve problems for them or tell them what to do. Listen to them, listen to why things are going wrong, and what can you do as the leader to help solve those problems. Ask open questions, thought-provoking questions, dig deeper, and help the person you're speaking to get everything they can to solve these problems within themselves."

💡 Your DOT (Do One Thing): Assess your culture by asking every single person on your team how they feel to be part of the team—because culture is how you feel to be part of the group, team, department, or organization. Once you understand how they feel, write your vision for what a happy culture looks like on a whiteboard, get the whole team in the room, and ask: "What do you think?" Let their ideas develop the vision, not change or quit on it, just develop it. Then work on it together every single day.

Connect with Tom Lawrence:

• Visit highlyeffectiveleader.com for 250+ blog posts (new post every Sunday)
• Download 12 FREE ebooks and access 12 FREE online courses
• Explore The Highly Effective Leader book series on his Amazon author page
• Book a FREE 20-minute discovery call for leadership and personal growth coaching
• Subscribe to his YouTube channel: Leadership and Growth with Tom Lawrence
• Connect with Tom on LinkedIn

#HighlyEffectiveLeader #LeadershipDevelopment #ListenToUnderstand #TeamVision #CultureAssessment #CoachingStyle #WorkPositive

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🔗 Stay connected with Dr. Joey Faucette:

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@workpositive7529
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjoeyfaucette/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WorkPositiveToday/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workpositive.today/

📧 Know someone who'd make a great guest on the show? Email [e-mail] with your recommendation!