In order for you to be a good leader, you need to have exceptional listening skills. Listening to what others have to say and valuing and respecting their opinion is a quality all great leaders need in their arsenal. Doing so can help establish a good relationship with the people you are leading and could even result in encouraging them to work harder. 

Listening to the people you work with is key within the work environment. Actively listening to what coworkers have to say shows them that you care about them and what they have to say. Doing so can help with the flow of ideas and get to a better end product. Listening goes both ways, and if coworkers actively listen to their leader/boss it can also contribute to improved idea generation because their ideas are being valued. Establishing a good relationship between the boss and coworkers can also help lower the employee turnover rate of a company because employees have more of an incentive to stay because they value the leadership at the company. 

Having empathy for your coworkers and employees is an important trait to have. As a leader, you need to be able to sympathize with the problems and issues your coworkers may have. Understanding and seeing where your employees are coming from can help you better understand them as a person, and it can help you to improve the work environment and adapt to their needs. Listening to their problems can help build chemistry between people and help build mutual respect. Bridgette Hyacinth, author of Leading the Workforce of the Future summed it up perfectly with the quote “As a leader, your job is to encourage others around you to be open and honest without a negative consequence. Listening leads to personal awareness and growth. If you do not listen, you will not grow.” 

As a leader, you need to take charge and initiate positive change in the workforce if problems arise. Becoming an active listener as a leader will create a great work environment. Setting up weekly meetings to talk about and promote active listening can again promote the sharing of ideas and foster new relationships and build team chemistry. One idea that can be implemented comes from a book titled It’s Your Ship by Captain Michael Abrashoft. This book talks about a navy ship where the captain set aside 6 weeks to individually meet with each crew member. In these meetings, he would ask the members what was going well and what wasn’t. He was willing to listen and value the feedback and suggestions he was receiving. This is a tactic any leader can implement to improve team chemistry and the overall work environment.