In the busyness of our work we sometimes neglect one of the most basic skills that can have a tremendous impact on our productivity and relationships with our team members. Listening.

As a manager, the quality of your listening can impact everything from productivity, through to relationships. It’s even adding to your email overload as fear of being "unheard" results in the need for “putting it in writing”.

In his book Deep Listening, Oscar Trimboli talks about the cost of poor listening.

“This results in unproductive workplaces where people fight to be heard and need to repeat themselves constantly, send emails to confirm what they said and then have follow-up meetings to ensure what was said was actually heard by those in the meeting.”

So what would happen the next time you were in a meeting, if you were fully present and listened….no REALLY listened?