Wooden's Wisdom | Leadership Resource Center

Issue 610 - "Leaders Listen" (Liz Wiseman)


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 12	Issue 610
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"LEADERS LISTEN" (LIZ WISEMAN) John Wooden Video Clip (64 sec.): Coach Wooden describes "Competitive Greatness". Liz Wiseman is a bestselling author, researcher, and elite leadership coach. In her New York Times bestseller, Multipliers: she researched over 150 leaders worldwide. Liz Wiseman and John Wooden would both tell you that great leadership starts with great listening. Wiseman wrote that leaders make a positive step forward "when they see that their greatest contribution lies in asking the questions that produce the most rigorous thinking and answers." Wiseman continued and offered three practical tips for leaders conducting a meeting: 1. The discussion leader only asks questions. This means that the leader isn’t allowed to answer his or her questions or give his or her interpretation of the topic’s meaning. This keeps the participants from relying on the leader’s answers. 2. The participants must supply evidence to support their theories 3. Everyone participates. The role of the leader is to make sure everyone gets airtime during the discussion. Often the leader needs to restrain stronger voices and proactively call on the more timid voices. In his book, Wooden on Leadership, with Steve Jamison, Coach Wooden wrote: "In my opinion, being an effective leader - one who can build a winning organization - requires being an effective listener." Here are three practical Coach Wooden habits you can use: 1. I never heard John Wooden interrupt anybody. 2. Coach answered only the question he was asked. He then stopped talking. This allowed the person asking the question to continue the conversation. 3. Coach never jumped into a conversation and offered his opinion unless he was asked. Coach Wooden had a laminated card he enjoyed handing out without comment. It had the following verse: "A wise old owl sat in an Oak. The more he heard the less he spoke. The less he spoke the more he heard. Now wasn't he a wise old bird?" What did you learn today? Click here for personal development exercise: Issue 610. Click here for Printable Poetry: Issue 610. Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Follow @woodenswisdom	COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE The Path That Leads To Home The little path that leads to home, That is the road for me, I know no finer path to roam, With finer sights to see. With thoroughfares the world is lined That lead to wonders new, But he who treads them leaves behind The tender things and true. Oh, north and south and east and west The crowded roadways go, And sweating brow and weary breast Are all they seem to know. And mad for pleasure some are bent, And some are seeking fame, And some are sick with discontent, And some are bruised and lame. Across the world the gleaming steel Holds out its lure for men, But no one finds his comfort real Till he comes home again. And charted lanes now line the sea For weary hearts to roam, But, Oh, the finest path to me Is that which leads to home. 'Tis there I come to laughing eyes And find a welcome true; 'Tis there all care behind me lies And joy is ever new. And, Oh, when every day is done Upon that little street, A pair of rosy youngsters run To me with flying feet. The world with myriad paths is lined But one alone for me, One little road where I may find The charms I want to see. Though thoroughfares majestic call The multitude to roam, I would not leave, to know them all, The path that leads to home. Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)
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