Listening isn’t just a channel - it’s a capability and mindset.
“How do you listen to your employees? How do you keep a real pulse on them?”
I recently asked a business leader this during a conversation. He rattled off a list: regular team meetings, 1-1s, quick check-ins over Teams, DMs, team channels, town halls, and of course, company surveys. He genuinely felt like there were a lot of ways for people to speak up and he was doing his best to pay close attention to them all.
And yet… something still felt off. He was hearing conflicting things. Sometimes what he heard didn’t seem to match what seemed to really happening. He found the company survey too static, too slow, and frankly, not that helpful anymore.
So, what was going on?
Well, a lot was happening - in and out of the organization. There had been re-orgs, a new system rolling out, and rising instability in the market. Employees were confused and tired, which showed up in different ways.
What this leader was bumping into wasn’t a lack of data. It was a deeper signal problem - a breakdown in shared understanding and trust.
At the Heart of Listening is Conversation
At its core, listening isn’t about collecting inputs. It’s about creating space for real conversations. The kind that opens up insights, connection, and shared meaning. It’s what builds psychological safety and trust.
One recent meta-analysis (Kluger et al., 2024) underscores the pivotal role of listening in enhancing both relationships and performance at work. The study found that when people feel genuinely listened to — not just heard, but understood — it fosters trust, improves communication quality, and boosts engagement and task performance. In other words, listening well isn’t just a soft skill; it’s a core lever for effectiveness.
As Ed Schein wrote in Humble Inquiry:
“Humble Inquiry is the skill and the art of drawing someone out, of asking questions to which you do not already know the answer, of building a relationship based on curiosity and interest in the other person.”
That’s what real listening requires — thoughtful, respectful, and open inquiry. It moves listening from a checkbox to a truly human act.
So what does it take to listen well especially now?
It’s both a skill and a habit. In our work with organizations of all sizes and sectors, one patterns shows up repeatedly. The high performing organizations treat listening not just as a mechanism for feedback, but a core cultural capability and mindset.
They get that listening is:
an individual skill to hone, especially for people leaders
an organizational habit to build and strengthen
a leadership behavior and mindset rooted in curiosity, not control
It takes more human conversations. Surveys can still be useful - but note they are just one piece. The real opportunity is to strengthen feedback and reflection muscles, and make more room for dialogue.
For organizations that rely heavily on surveys, this doesn’t mean abandoning them. But it does mean:
Cultivating more human and natural feedback channels
Enabling better follow-up conversations
Helping leaders and employees build “listening muscles” toether
It’s about creating conditions. That might mean nudging managers to check in differently. Or helping teams learn how to surface friction early, without fear. Or building lightweight tools that make it easier to capture feedback in the flow of work.
It’s about creating conditions where listening isn’t just a corporate exercise – it’s part of how the culture breathes.
Closing Thoughts
Employees want to be heard AND understood. They want to feel that what they say matters. That their voice connects to action, and that leaders don’t just collect input, but really listen with intent.
The future of listening won’t be just about more data. It’ll be about more depth – more conversations, more meaning, and more courage to act on what we hear.
How is your organization creating space for that kind of listening?