The ability to truly listen to

and hear one another is critical––

professionally, personally and globally.

I’ll never forget a senior leader

of a multi-national brand

telling me years ago that after

being interrupted 5x during a

high-level brainstorming call

with the executive team,

she simply stopped sharing.

Organizations talk about fostering

a culture of innovation,

and interrupting is a

sure fire way to shut it down.

Last week, I led another interactive workshop

for 12 women presidents

on The Art of Listening.

(This 8-second clip is from

a humorous exercise I created

to shed a comedic light on the

frustration of being interrupted.)

Here are 3 insights from my content:

1. If you do interrupt, first apologize and then ask the other person to continue.
2. If you need to interrupt (i.e. you have an imminent call), apologize in advance. “I’m so sorry, I have to interrupt you….”
3. And if you witness someone else being interrupted, you can help by circling back to them. (i.e. “Sarah, I think you were going to say something earlier?”)

Great leaders, parents,

managers, sales professionals,

advisors and friends…are great listeners.

So Risk Forward & Listen On,