If you are a leader (tech or non-tech), often you will find yourself in a crisis. And at such times all the leadership learnings go out of the window and the instinct is to grab the steering with both hands and take the ship to safety.
However that’s exactly when some (if not most) lessons should be remembered (and implemented). One of that lesson is to ‘listen‘ to your team.
Really listen, not just hear them. It’s all the more important during a crisis. Although you do have the experience of steering multiple ships out of the troubled waters, however the guys working on the ground know the situation much better than you. And highly likely chances are they know the solution to the current problem better than you. If only, you can ‘listen‘ to them.
But the answer that most leaders will give is that they are always listening to their team. So how to know when you are ‘not listening‘ to your team?
If you are talking more than your team – you are not listening
If you are talking over/at your team – you are not listening
If you are cutting your team in between by asking ‘smart’ questions – you are not listening
If you are unnecessarily ‘cross-questioning’ your team – you are not listening
If you are starting to listen from a no-trust zone – you are not listening
If your team doesn’t usually speak to you or is not vocal – you are not listening