As I look back over last year’s writing, podcast conversations, and coaching work, I’m struck by how often I’ve returned to the theme of listening as a core disposition of effective coaching and leadership. I find that growth, trust, and collaboration emerge not from the brilliance of what we say, but from the quality of attention we offer. Listening is where coaching begins, where relationships deepen, and where new thinking becomes possible. Several pieces from this past year explored listening from different dimensions. Listening has the potential to transform how we show up with teachers, students, and colleagues. Below are a few resources that highlight our ongoing work as educators committed to meaningful learning and human connection.
Consider your conscious focus on listening in the coming months.
Radical Listening and Radical Candor
Radical candor means tuning into the listener’s emotional and cognitive state. The success of communication depends on how it is received rather than how it is intended. By considering timing, tone, and relationship, the message lands as helpful rather than harmful. This approach emphasizes humility, curiosity, and dialogue: asking questions, inviting reactions, and being open to adjusting one’s message if it misses the mark
Radical listening, is a practice of giving full, undivided attention to another person with the intention of creating genuine human connection. It moves beyond the functional act of hearing words to a deeper engagement that honors the speaker’s thoughts, emotions, and identity. Radical listening means deliberately slowing down and suspending one’s impulse to judge, advise, or problem-solve to listen with openness and curiosity.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Big Ears for Soulful Listening
Soulful listening is “a dynamic act of thinking and feeling together, which opens the way to collective meaning and shared understanding.” It’s more than gathering information or responding with empathy. It’s a way of listening that creates space for emergence and transformation.
Silence in communication like in music can create contrast, heighten tension, change dynamics and rhythm to shape the listener’s experience. Intentionally placed silence can add to the listener’s emotional connection to the ebb and flow of the musical journey. The same applies to our listening as coaches.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Coaching and Empathic Listening
Empathic listening is a structured listening and questioning technique that allows you to develop and enhance relationships with a stronger understanding of what is being conveyed, both intellectually and emotionally. It takes active listening techniques to a new level.”
