One of the things that strikes me most about true leaders is that they don’t talk much.
They listen.
Listening is a skill. Firstly, it requires that you put your own thoughts, opinions, and creative ideas on the back burner — to “table” them, to mix my metaphors. Secondly, it asks you to actually hear — to process, understand, synthesize — what others are saying.
The results can be stunning.
As any good sales person (or person on the dating scene) will tell you, when you listen to someone, hear what they are saying, and let them know you’ve heard what they wanted to communicate, you have a tremendous impact because that person will feel understood. When a person feels understood, it generates trust and with trust comes a sense of loyalty and the genesis of commitment.
Now, any book on customer satisfaction will tell you this — that listening can actually be a more effective way to build communication and commitment between people and groups than speaking or evangelizing.
So how are leaders translating this listening skill in the Social Media Age?
Many companies, such as IBM, Symantec and Nabisco, are systemitizing their “listening,” by tapping social media streams using tools like PeopleBrowsr.com or putting in place employee groups that are responsible for tracking and responding to posts as well as analyzing posts to look for trends.
But there are also leaders out there that are actually rolling up their sleeves and participating – and by doing so, leading the way. Leaders like Sandy Carter, VP, Software Business Partners at IBM. A consistent blogger and tweeter, she engages personally with a virtual community that she has built on her own — by leveraging the power of social media to reach communities of people she never would have connected with before. (Visit her blog at: http://socialmediasandy.wordpress.com/ and Twitter – http://twitter.com/sandy_carter).
I heard Ms. Carter’s keynote at the annual WITI conference in San Jose this week and was impressed with the dialog that she has created with her virtual community. She not only pays attention to the comments in her network, she responds promptly. The result of this listening is that she is able to monitor trends, analyze them, and create a vision of social media and next generation marketing strategies that she can then communicate to other business professionals. Essentially, it’s a feeback loop, but one that is fostered by her own ability to listen coupled with her own thoughts, experience and knowledge.
And because Sandy has created a dialog with her community — she hasn’t just tried to “sell” them — when she goes back to them with this vision, they listen to her. Avidly.
Who are you listening to?
Before the Brand 