Active Listening - Needs More Than Your Ears!

Active Listening is something that some people find difficult to grasp. Active listening is about ensuring and confirming understanding

Have you ever asked the question of someone close to you "Are you listening to me?"

I have found that we believe we hear, and we believe we understand, without any reference point other than ourselves.

For example, you ask someone to do something and they say "Okay, I'll do that later, I need to finish this first". There are a few problems here already!

• When is later?
• What will you actually do?
• Is what they are doing more important?
• Do they really know what you want them to do?

When we ask someone to do something we have a mental 'picture' in our head of what that something looks like. Likewise, if you are asked to do something, the person asking has their mental 'picture'.

This 'picture' is more than just a 2D image, it has other facets that we need to consider, such as emotions, beliefs and values.

Active Listening is about making sure your vision of something and the other persons vision are closely aligned, we all know what happens if they are not!

We need to use questioning and observation as part of Active Listening: questioning our understanding by restating what you believe has been said, probing into what the other persons something looks like, observing the body language as we restate to look for physical signs of agreement

As business leaders we should always be striving to understand what the WHOLE picture is all about.

Mental Toughness - The Component Parts 

Why not enter our FREE Prize Draw to win a Mental Toughness Assessment for your organisation, use the button on the left.

Second in the Blog series - Mental Toughness - What is it? Paul Caffery, MD of ResultsResults, explains the components of Mental Toughness - Control, Commitment, Challenge and Confidence. plus the opportunity to ask him a question directly!

JC "Paul, you've told us that there are four component parts to Mental Toughness - Control, Commitment, Challenge  and Confidence, can you expand on what each of these means? Lets start with Control"

PC "Certainly Julie. Control, in mental toughness terms, can be explained in two dimensions - Life Control and Emotional Control. If someone has a high level of Life Control it means that they really believe they can do anything they can set their mind to. Having a high level of Emotional Control means they can manage both their own emotions and the emotions of others.

JC "How would that benefit someone?"

PC "Well if you have high levels of control you are more easily able to focus on facts and reality without getting drawn into assumptions (misled) and less likely to feel that you cannot make progress because of the way that somebody else is 'acting up'......."

JC "Great. What about Commitment?"

PC "Commitment is about Goal Setting and Achieving. People with high levels of mental toughness enjoy setting themselves goals and doing whatever it takes to keep their promises and achieve these goals!"

JC "Thats how we like people to be! Okay, what about Challenge?"

PC "When we are talking mental toughness, Challenge is about Drive and Adaptability. People with high levels of mental toughness learn from experience and take calculated risks, they see setbacks as an opportunity to learn and they will push to succeed"

JC "Right so someone who is mentally tough will not just give up at the first sign of an obstacle, they will keep trying, and adapt their approach if required. And Confidence?"

PC "Confidence is about having the ability (or being able to acquire the ability) and the interpersonal confidence to influence others in order to get their 'buy-in' to ensure you can complete a piece of work or project. Also having the confidence and ability to stand your own ground when necesssary!"

JC "Brilliant! Sounds like my sort of person"

PC "Yes, they are great people to have around if you are serious about driving improvements through your business, and sustaining them. However, please remember my health warning  - managers have a responsibility to manage the environment and processes at work so that unnecesssary stresses are removed from the workplace. My top tip is to find people within the organisation with high levels of mental toughness and get them to help you"

JC " Thanks Paul, another great tip!"

If you have any questions about Mental Toughness and the MTQ48, use the form below to ask Paul directly

Mental Toughness - What Is It?

Why not enter our FREE Prize Draw to win a Mental Toughness Assessment for your organisation, use the button on the left!

Interview with Paul Caffery - MD of Results Results

I recently had a conversation with Paul Caffery to find out more about Mental Toughness, a term often used in sport but becoming increasing prevalent in industry.

JC "Paul, what is Mental Toughness?"

PC "Mental Toughness describes the mind set that every person adopts in everything that they do. It is closely related to qualities such as character, resilience, grit etc. You could define it as 'A personality trait which determines, in large part, how people respond to challenge, stress and pressure, irrespective of their circumstances'"

JC "Do organisations need people with high levels of Mental Toughness?"

PC "Good question Julie. This is the first question you should ask when considering job specifications or potential candidates for a specific role, as many positions within an organisation do not require particularly high levels of mental toughness. However, if mental toughness is a core requirement for a role, then the good news is that it is something you can test for and develop in your selected people.

JC "We hear a lot about Mental Toughness in sport, what sort of roles would require high levels within industry?"

PC "We would expect people in roles such as Six Sigma Black and Green Belts, Continuous Improvement Co-Ordinators, Team Leaders or Supervisors, Managers, anyone involved in Lean Implementation to typically require high levels of Mental Toughness. These people can then help to improve your organisation's performance by developing new skills in themselves, whilst co-creating and improving the work environment and processes with the rest of your team. This in turn makes the new state of performance sustainable, whilst encouraging them to improve it further"

JC "What are people with high levels of Mental Toughness typically like?"

PC "A mentally tough person tends to be sociable and outgoing; being able to remain calm and relaxed, they are competitive in many situations and have lower anxiety levels than others. They also have a high sense of self-belief and an unshakeable faith that they have control of their own destiny. These individuals can remain relatively unaffected by competition or adversity, performing to the peak of their ability in terms of performance, behaviour, well being, resilience, aspirations, employability and the ability to bring difficult situations to a satisfactory conclusion.

JC "Thanks for the explanation Paul, anything else we should know about Mental Toughness?"

PC "Yes! I would like to issue a health warning about Mental Toughness, because the organisation and its management team are always responsible for ensuring that unnecessary and undue stresses are not placed on your people. It is counter-productive to require mentally tough individuals to cope with situations that should be managed and remedied by you!"

JC "Noted! Thanks Paul"

This is the first in our upcoming series on Mental Toughness, sign up to our Blog, Facebook page and Twitter channel to ensure you receive notification of new posts on this topic

Recommended Reading - Communication, Trust & Management Tools / Techniques

Another sunny day, another recommended reading list! Our 'Man In The  North', Malcolm Hewitt has made the following recommendations, we hope you enjoy these. 

COMMUNICATE TO WIN

By: Richard Denny

Publisher: Kogan

ISBN: 0749456450

Great communication skills are absolutely vital for successful people and successful organisations to possess. This book is full of practical examples on how to improve your own communication skills and how to achieve more. It deals with many different scenarios, providing tips and techniques along the way. It is a very useful starting point for further in-depth reading

THE SPEED OF TRUST    

By: Stephen Covey

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

ISBN: 1847392717

Building upon his father's impressive array of books about leadership and management, Stephen has ensured the Covey name continues to be associated with new thinking and ideas for today's managers. This book looks at how to build and develop trust with others and the benefits that accrue to both the individual and the organisation. It flies in the face of convention, given that so many organisations have a basic mistrust of their people which impacts upon organisational performance. Put simply - if we trust somebody with a £1 million training budget, why do they still need to have their expenses  signed and countersigned by three layers of management to whom they report?!

MANAGEMENT POCKETBOOKS     

By: Various

Publisher: Management Pocketbooks

ISBN: Various

These are great little (pocket sized) books covering a huge range of topics in a very easy to read, straightforward manner. They are full of tips and techniques, often in bullet form, and are easy to dip in and out of. More details of the title range can be found at www.pocketbook.co.uk, and a large part of the range is available as ebooks, via Kindle, Kobo and iBookstore. Multi user licenses are also available to allow team use for L & D.

We always try and provide as many details as possible with our recommended reading lists to allow you to track the publications down but if you experience any  difficulty please do not hesitate to call the team on 01371 859 344 or email to julie.camp@resultsresults.co.uk

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact the Results Team on 01371 859 344