Workscape Institute

[On May 27th, J.P. Donlon, the Editor-in-Chief of Chief Executive Magazine, interviewed Workscape CEO Tim Clifford in a live video webcast to a pre-selected audience. This video is one of a collection of excerpts made available on YouTube.]

In this video Workscape CEO Tim Clifford shares his views on the importance of exercising good listening skills as a leader to keep employees engaged and gain insights into client and prospect communities.

While CEOs face many pressing tasks every day, perhaps the most important of all is setting aside dedicated time to talk with employees from different functional areas to gain an understanding of daily challenges as they happen. An employee that deals with customer service will have a unique view of customer satisfaction and product quality that could be entirely different from a member of the sales staff or someone in product development.

Tim recommends several practices that promote good listening:

1. Walking the office floor for a half-hour to engage employees in conversation
2. Holding periodic town hall meetings where employees are encouraged to voice questions and present ideas in an open forum
3. Holding a quarterly all-hands meeting to review the state of the company, and soliciting feedback and questions on company initiatives and strategy during these reviews

Like any skill, Tim notes that becoming a good listener requires a commitment of time and energy, and for a busy CEO, this often requires establishing listening as a priority relative to the numerous other objectives that are often heaped – sometimes literally – on a CEO’s desk.