1. Building Leadership Capacity
Slide Intent
Cover slide
Active Listening
New Reality Leadership
December 2018
Copyright New Reality Leadership, LLC

2. Effective Listening? Directions
Think about an effective or ineffective listener you have talked with in the past.
Based on your assigned group, list the characteristics of either the effective or ineffective listener.
Chart your answers and have one person share back your work with the rest of the group.
Slide Intent
Provide exercise instructions.
Key Messages
Divide the participants into smaller groups of up to 5 people
Ask half of the groups to focus on listing characteristics of effective listeners and half to list characteristics of ineffective listeners.
Ask them to chart their responses and be prepared to share back their results.
Hang their charts on the wall to reference during the session.
Facilitation Notes
You may have several groups working on the same focus if you have a large group. By having the group focus outwardly first, they will likely see more listening characteristics. The assessment later in the session will help them focus inwardly.
Adjust instructions based on how you conduct the exercise. We conduct this exercise first even before the objectives and agenda to get participants engaged and talking early in the session.

3. Objectives
Discover ways to maximize listening effectiveness especially when involved in coaching conversations.
Connect how Active Listening improves employee engagement and business impact.
Slide Intent
Present objectives.
Key Messages
Agenda lists the actions you will take. Objectives discussion what you will accomplish by the end of the session by completing the agenda items.
You will review the objectives at the end of the session also.
Facilitation Notes
It is a good facilitation practice to review the objectives at the beginning and end of a session so participants know what to focus on through the session. Notice the slight difference in wording from this slide to the last objective slide.

4. Agenda 2 Ears and 1 Mouth Listening Assessment Power of Questions
70-30 Listening Guide
Listening Assessment
Power of Questions
Ping Pong Conversations
Listening Application Exercise
The Competency Connection
Summary and Application
Competency Connection
Next Steps
Slide Intent
Present the Agenda.
Key Messages
Share the agenda. Post this on the wall as well either by making a poster from this slide or making a chart to hang.
Facilitation Notes
By posting the agenda, you can refer to it as you work through the session. Participants like to know where they are in the overall session.

5. Maximizing Performance
As a leader, how will better listening help maximize the performance of your team?
Full Potential
Gap
Potential
Current Performance
Slide Intent
Provide a pictorial view of closing the performance gap, or….better said, maximizing the performance of the employee. This is an animated slide.
Key Discussion Points
This chart is core to the entire leadership process and will be reviewed in most modules.
We all have some level of performance and that may fall short of our real potential.
A goal of employees is to identify anything that may inhibit them from performing to their potential
Leaders can impact performance by the way they listen of others. This module will highlight ways to improve this skill.
Facilitation Notes
It is helpful to have some of the core charts hung permanently and referred to often. All content helps leaders close this performance gap.

6. The Rate of Development is Key in the New Reality
Companies that just let development happen will risk staying competitive
Organizations must accelerate the development of employees vs. just letting them learn at a leisurely pace
Shifting the mindset
Development
Time
Time
Traditional Development
It is important to make development happen. All employees should have a development plan
Slide Intent
Emphasize the focus on Rate of Development.
Key Messages
Organizations often just let development happen.
Listening helps leaders learn more about employees, their goals, frustrations, and desired development ideas. If leaders know more about employee desires and skills and are open to developing their team, the employee will grow faster which can help improve business results.
Facilitation Notes

7. 70-30 Listening Guide 1. Two Ears and One Mouth
What does this image represent?
Slide Intent
Highlight a key point of the module.
Key Messages
Ask participants what they think this slide is emphasizing and allow them to share implications of the slide for their leadership effectiveness.
We have 2 ears and one mouth is a phrase to help us remember the proportion of how much we should talk vs. listen especially during important or coaching conversations.
If people, especially leaders, followed this guide, our relationships and interactions would be much more effective.
Facilitation Notes
If appropriate, make a small poster of this slide and hang in applicable areas as a reminder of the key learnings from this module.
70-30 Listening Guide

8. 2. The Assessment
Review your assessment results or fill in the assessment.
Read the following pages for a deeper understanding of the assessment items.
Pick 2-3 strengths and 2-3 challenges you noted.
The assessment results provide information to help you focus on what is important for you in this module.
Slide Intent
For participants to review their assessments done prior to the session or to do now.
Key Messages
Ask participants to review their assessment or to fill it in now.
Once done, ask them to personally review the next several pages which provide a deeper understanding of the assessment.
Then ask them to list a few of their key focus areas and strengths based on the assessment. They will use this information shortly.
Facilitation Notes

9. 3. Power of Questions Closed Open Reflective Specific Probing
Slide Intent
Introduce several types of questions.
Key Messages
Quickly review the various types of questions.
Could ask for definitions or examples of each type from the participants.
Or, have them review the definitions in the book.
Go to next slide.
Facilitation Notes
There are many views and types of questions. We listed a few here so the participants would get an idea that there are different questions and the types of questions which will solicit the most information when used, which are on the next slide.

10. Types of Questions Open Reflective Probing A key to Active Listening
Slide Intent
Highlight the types of questions that solicit the most information.
Key Messages
Ask participants why these questions are an effective active listening tool.
These types of questions provide much more information from the employee than closed, yes or no type questions. By asking these types of questions, the leader will have a deeper more engaging conversation with the employee.
Facilitation Notes

11. 4. Ping Pong Conversations
The Ping Pong Conversation
Dialog with Questions
Pat Hey Mike, I had a great round of golf yesterday.
Mike Well, I went to the park.
Pat I shot an 83 and got an eagle.
Mike My son and I played golf a couple weeks ago.
Pat I am going to go out again tomorrow.
Pat Hey Mike, I had a great round of golf yesterday.
Mike Really, what did you shoot?
Pat I shot an 83 and got an eagle.
Mike Wow! Is that your best score? First eagle?
Pat I shot an 82 a few years ago but this is best score since and first Eagle.
Slide Intent
Provide a view of the challenge of most conversations.
Key Messages
Most conversations resemble a ping-pong match. The speakers go back and forth sharing their view or thought and almost never ask follow up questions to dig deeper into the other person’s comments.
The second dialog shows one person talking for a while and then sharing the air time with the other person. Thinking of the guide and asking various questions creates this balance.
Facilitation Notes
This slide, or something maybe more creative, could be used as a coaching tool or group picture to remind each other of this guide. Or, you might simply put up a poster in your area that has on it so employees can see and think about this. As a leader of leaders, a good question to ask others is, How close do you think you have come to applying the listening guide? How has that helped you in your coaching? What new things have you learned from your group?

12. 5. Application Exercise Practice Active Listening
Complete the active listening exercise in the participant guide.
Slide Intent
Introduce an exercise.
Key Messages
Use the participant guide instructions for this exercise
Have the participants work in pairs.
Facilitation Notes .

13. 6. The Competency Connection
Listens Actively
Engages employees for their knowledge
Interacts well with employees
Slide Intent
Connecting this skill to leadership competencies.
Key Messages
In our initial modules, we discussed a number of competencies or mindsets of successful leaders. Among a longer list, the way we listen impacts these areas significantly.
Have an open discussion by asking the question on the slide to the participants. This discussion will help them connect the need to apply this skill well if they want to accomplish the above shifts in the organization.
Facilitation Notes
How does Listening Actively also help you develop the competencies of Engaging employees for their knowledge and Interacts well with Employees?

14. The Business Impact of Active Listening
In small groups, discuss how this competency improves business goals such as eliminating waste, increase profit margins, or generating additional revenue.
New Reality Focus
Effective leaders grow engaged and empowered teams that drive business improvement.
Slide Intent
Connecting this skill to leadership competencies.
Key Messages
Allow small group discussions for the listed question.
Have an open discussion to debrief their ideas.
Facilitation Notes
Employees have ideas that would improve business or reduce costs. Many are never shared because leaders do not take the time to listen fully to employees.
The Business Impact of Active Listening

15. 7. Summary and Application
Discuss the listed possible follow up application ideas.
Look through the application ideas in the workbook. Which of these might be helpful for you? What other ideas do you have?
How can you support each other going forward to improve the overall listening?
Slide Intent
Focus on follow up activities to help the participants apply the key learnings.
Key Messages
Using the book, ask the participants to review the possible follow up activities.
Ask if they have additional ideas.
Determine ways to help reinforce the learnings such as asking them to practice the skills and report back their application at a subsequent meeting.
Facilitation Notes
The key is to ensure the participants practice the skills. If they know they will get back together shortly and will be asked to share successes or challenges, they will be more likely to fill in the journal page. Send a couple of follow-up notes to encourage them to think about using the skills during the day. This leadership skill takes practice and reinforcement to become a habit.

16. Objective Review Our objective was to:
Discover ways to maximize listening effectiveness especially when involved in coaching conversations.
Connect how Active Listening improves employee engagement and business impact.
Discuss what you learned in this session what will help you achieve this objective.
What do you need to do next to apply the concepts?
Slide Intent
Review the objective to ensure it was accomplished.
Key Messages
This slide lists the initial objective and then provides a couple of questions for discussion to help the participants think about how they will apply this skill so they become competent as an active listener.
Facilitation Notes

17. Any other insights you gained during this session?
Closing thoughts…
Any other insights you gained during this session?
So what if everyone speaks only 30% of the time? It will be a quiet place. And to that it is said….how often will you find two people in the same room that have that balance……?
Slide Intent
Review of the module by asking for a key learning from the participants.
Key Messages
Ask each participant for one key learning from this module.
Value of this exercise is for all participants to see how other leaders are applying the skill or knowledge, which often helps them see possible ways to apply the skill as well.
Facilitation Notes
If this was accomplished in the previous slide, simply ask for any other comments or insights they have.

18. Active Listening Ping Pong Discussions Probing Questions
70-30 Listening Balance
2 Ears and 1 Mouth
Business impact
Slide Intent
Highlight Active Listening approaches for a final review.
Key Messages
Show slide as one last reminder of the session.
Make a small poster of this slide and post in conspicuous areas as a reminder.
Facilitation Notes
If appropriate, you could make a small posted of this slide and hang in applicable areas as a reminder of the key learnings from this module.
Non-Verbal Listening