Wooden's Wisdom | Leadership Resource Center

Issue 665 - "Listen Like A Trampoline" (Daniel Coyle)


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 13	Issue 665
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"LISTEN LIKE A TRAMPOLINE" (DANIEL COYLE) John Wooden Video Clip (3 min. 22 sec.): Coach Wooden is asked "Tell us about the challenges you faced marrying Nellie." Long video clip but a great perspective. The first steps in becoming an effective listener are to: (1) never interrupt the other person, (2) not think about what you’re going say next while the other person is talking and (3) approach each conversation as an opportunity to learn, not display your knowledge. These listening skills only make you a polite and potentially passive listener. An effective listener elevates the other person’s thinking and speaking skills just like a trampoline elevates you higher each time you jump on it. In his book, The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle describes the skill this way: "Listen Like a Trampoline: Good listening is about more than nodding attentively; it’s about adding insight and creating moments of mutual discovery. Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman, who run a leadership consultancy, analyzed 3,492 participants in a manager development program and found that the most effective listeners do four things: They interact in ways that make the other person feel safe and supported. They take a helpful, cooperative stance. They occasionally ask questions that gently and constructively challenge old assumptions. They make occasional suggestions to open alternative paths. As Zenger and Folkman put it, the most effective listeners behave like trampolines. They aren’t passive sponges. They are active responders, absorbing what the other person gives, supporting them, and adding energy to help the conversation gain velocity and altitude. Also, like trampolines, effective listeners gain amplitude through repetition. When asking questions, they rarely stop at the first response. (Whenever you ask a question, the first response you get is usually not the answer—it’s just the first response.) Effective listeners find different ways to explore an area of tension, to reveal the truths and connections that will enable cooperation." Are you an effective listener? Click here for personal development exercise: Issue 665. Click here for Printable Poetry: Issue 665. Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Follow @woodenswisdom	COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE The Person I like I like the person who stands right up And takes their share of praise or blame, And then, unchanged by loss or gain, Treats all their neighbors just the same! The person, who, if they liked you once, Still likes you, though they’ve gained success; Who plays their part all the time, And blames no friend for their distress. Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)
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