Turning Listening into a Leadership Priority

It’s easy to assume that communication for leaders is primarily about speaking: pitching a vision, persuading a team, or presenting to stakeholders. Leadership courses reinforce this assumption by emphasizing public speaking, storytelling, and charisma. Yet we rarely see the same energy invested in listening. The result is a leadership culture that can talk, but often struggles to hear. Research shows that people spend roughly one-third to one-half of their workday listening, but they retain only about half of what they hear. When listening isn’t intentional, information slips through the cracks and employees feel ignored.

But listening isn’t merely polite etiquette. It’s a powerful tool for engagement, trust, and innovation. Employees who feel heard experience higher levels of engagement and commitment, and they’re less likely to leave. High-quality listening creates psychological safety, fosters creativity, and reduces burnout. In other words, listening isn’t a soft skill, it’s a leadership imperative that affects the organization’s bottom line.

This post explores why listening is overlooked in leadership, examines the costs of poor listening, describes what high-quality listening looks like, outlines the skills leaders need, explains how to scale listening across an organization, and offers practical steps for making listening a core leadership and organizational priority.

Why Listening Gets Overlooked in Leadership

Leaders spend a lot of time in conversation, but that doesn’t automatically mean they’re listening well. Often, the gap begins with how we develop leaders in the first place.

Leadership training typically emphasizes assertive communication: how to deliver a presentation, craft a compelling message, or persuade an audience. Listening skills, if addressed at all, are covered briefly, almost as an afterthought. The training bias is so strong that only about 10% of undergraduate business programs have a formal listening goal. Consequently, many leaders can speak confidently but struggle with the subtler aspects of absorbing information and understanding diverse perspectives.

Another challenge is attention. In today’s digital workplace, leaders’ attention is fragmented by email, chat notifications, and back-to-back meetings. Even when they are physically present in a meeting, their mind may still be processing the last conversation or anticipating the following agenda item. When leaders juggle multiple tasks, their listening quality suffers.

The final piece is perception. Many leaders believe they listen more effectively than they actually do. They see themselves as open and attentive, but their teams often disagree. This perception gap is dramatic: in a 2024 Forbes study of 14,000 employees, only 8% believed their leaders listened “very well”. Meanwhile, leaders may feel they’re listening by scheduling one-on-ones or running surveys, but employees judge the quality of listening by how leaders respond and act on what they hear. When they don’t see action, they conclude that their voice doesn’t matter.

Thus, listening is often overlooked due to training biases, attention challenges, and perception gaps. Leaders may feel they’re listening, but without conscious effort and organizational systems, they’re only scratching the surface.

The Cost of Poor Listening

Underestimating the importance of listening has tangible consequences on engagement, culture, and financial performance.

Recent data from Gallup puts a staggering price tag on disengagement: globally, disengaged employees cost the world about $8.8 trillion every year, or 9 % of global GDP. That’s lost productivity, absenteeism, and turnover on a scale larger than the entire GDP of Japan or Germanyforbes.com. When employees don’t feel heard or valued, they mentally check out—and the numbers show it.

Poor listening also fuels expensive miscommunication. Research also shows that for companies with 100,000 employees, inadequate communication to and between employees can drain $62.4 billion annually. Even small companies (100 employees) can lose up to $420,000 a year because people aren’t on the same page. Broken down per employee, the loss averages $26,000 per worker per year. These costs stem from duplicated work, confusion over roles, and the productivity drag that occurs when people are disengaged.

At the manager level, poor listening drains morale and energy. Teams often suffer from miscommunications, unresolved conflicts, and duplicated work. Employees feel unseen and stop offering ideas. At the organisational level, poor listening breeds cynicism. Many organizations run surveys but never act on the results, leading to “listening fatigue.” Employees stop believing that their voices matter, which damages trust and undermines future feedback efforts.

In short, the numbers reveal that poor listening isn’t just a cultural problem; it’s a business risk measured in trillions globally and billions (or hundreds of thousands) at the company level. Including these figures underscores why an organisational listening strategy, beyond training individual managers, is critical.

What High-Quality Listening Looks Like

To improve listening, leaders need to understand what constitutes high-quality listening. High-quality listening has three components: attention, comprehension, and acceptance. Attention means giving your full focus to the speaker; eliminating distractions, maintaining eye contact, nodding, and demonstrating through body language that you are engaged. Comprehension involves asking clarifying questions, paraphrasing what you heard, and ensuring you understand the speaker’s perspective. Acceptance means creating a non-judgmental environment where the speaker feels safe to share, free from immediate evaluation or advice.

Quality listening is an active, not a passive, process. It involves demonstrating curiosity and withholding judgment. For example, when a team member explains a challenge, the manager might say: “Tell me more about how that deadline is affecting your workflow.” They might reflect: “It sounds like you’re concerned about quality if we don’t extend the timeline, did I understand that correctly?” These behaviors signal that the manager truly values the speaker’s input and is not just waiting to respond.

Quality listening also requires follow-through. Employees want to see that their feedback leads to action. After a conversation or survey, leaders should summarize what they heard and explain how they will act. Even if the request cannot be met, explaining the rationale builds trust. In this way, listening isn’t just about the conversation itself; it’s about the full cycle of hearing, understanding, deciding, and acting.

Manager Level

At the manager level, quality listening is about behavior and intention. Managers should cultivate curiosity. Instead of asking “Why did you do that?”, which can sound accusatory, reframe the question to “What prompted that approach?” Managers should avoid jumping into problem-solving mode too quickly. Sometimes, people need to be heard; their best solutions may emerge after they’ve had the opportunity to share their story fully. Managers should also monitor their ratio of questions to statements. Good listeners ask more questions than they make statements. Reflective phrases (“It sounds like…”, “What I’m hearing is…”) confirm comprehension.

Organizational Level

At the organizational level, quality listening involves designing processes that ensure voices are heard and acted on. It means building feedback mechanisms that extend beyond annual surveys, including pulse surveys, suggestion boxes, open-door sessions, focus groups, and digital listening tools. It means ensuring that feedback channels are accessible to everyone, not just those who are comfortable speaking up. Organizations must close feedback loops by reporting back on what was learned and how it influenced decisions. When employees see that their input leads to real change, they are more likely to engage in future listening initiatives.

Organizations also need to create psychological safety for listening. People must feel safe sharing their concerns and ideas without fear of repercussions. Policies against retaliation, anonymous reporting channels, and visible actions on complex issues encourage honesty. By institutionalizing quality listening, organizations move beyond relying on the goodwill of individual managers and create a culture where listening is a shared value and practice.

The Levels and Skills Leaders Need

A helpful way to understand and practice better listening is the three-level framework from Forbes. Level 1 listening is internal: the listener is primarily focused on their own thoughts, waiting for their turn to speak, and often missing key information. Level 2 listening is focused: the listener pays attention to the speaker’s words to prepare a response. It shows more engagement but still centers on replying rather than fully understanding. Level 3 listening is 360° listening: the listener not only hears the words but also observes body language, tone, and what’s unsaid. They listen for context and underlying emotions. Level 3 listeners ask open-ended questions, invite elaboration, and pay attention to group dynamics.

Manager Level

Managers should strive to advance beyond Levels 1 and 2 into Level 3. It starts with awareness. When listening, managers should notice their internal dialogue: are they formulating a reply? Are they already judging the speaker’s choices? Pausing mentally and using prompts like “Tell me more” can shift the focus back to the speaker. The WAIT acronym, “Why Am I Talking?”, encourages leaders to pause before speaking and consider whether they need more information. Level 3 listening also involves intentionally noticing what isn’t being said and asking questions to surface unspoken concerns: “I sense there’s some hesitation, would you like to share more about that?”

Organizational Level

At the organizational level, Level 3 listening translates into scanning the broader environment. Leaders must pay attention to who isn’t speaking up. Which departments rarely share feedback? Which voices are missing from the conversation? Leaders should create spaces where quieter or marginalized voices are invited and feel safe to contribute. That might involve holding small-group listening sessions or utilizing anonymous feedback tools. This broad listening helps leaders detect systemic issues and cultural undercurrents, insights that won’t surface if they only listen to the loudest voices or rely on one-way communication.

From Individual Listening to Organizational Listening

Developing strong listening skills at the manager level is critical, but it’s not enough. Without organizational systems to support listening at scale, even the best listeners can’t overcome structural barriers.

First, individual efforts don’t address power dynamics. A manager might listen well, but if the broader culture punishes dissent or feedback, employees will still hesitate to speak. Organizational listening strategies ensure that feedback flows through safe channels and that people know it’s safe to share, even if their direct supervisor isn’t present.

Second, listening needs consistency. A few empathetic leaders can’t carry the burden for an entire organization. Systemic listening ensures that every team, regardless of its manager’s skill, has avenues for expressing concerns and ideas. That might include regular pulse surveys, employee focus groups, and digital tools that allow anonymous feedback across departments.

Third, listening at scale requires coordinated action. Feedback that goes into a survey should be summarized, analyzed, and acted upon. Without a strategy, feedback remains isolated in spreadsheets and fails to inform decisions. With a strategy, organizations assign accountability, set deadlines for follow-up, and measure progress. They treat listening as a process: gather input, analyze themes, communicate findings, act on insights, and then close the loop.

Finally, listening strategies help organizations focus on “moments that matter.” Certain times are pivotal for the employee experience: onboarding, performance reviews, leadership changes, reorganizations, and layoffs. A listening strategy anticipates these moments and ensures leaders gather the right insights when they are most needed. For example, collecting feedback during mergers can reveal integration challenges that would otherwise surface as turnover months later.

CultureC’s role is to help organizations design such strategies. We emphasize listening both as a skill and a system. Our approach involves identifying critical touchpoints, developing tools and processes to capture feedback, and training leaders to act on it. We also help organizations measure listening effectiveness through engagement and performance metrics. By combining individual leadership development with organizational design, we enable listening to scale from the manager’s office to the C-suite and across every division.

Listening as a Leadership Superpower

When leaders embrace listening as an active skill, they unlock a superpower. Quality listening boosts engagement, reduces burnout, and fosters stronger connections. It benefits not only the person being heard but also the listener, enhancing their sense of competence and self-esteem. In team settings, listening fosters psychological safety and encourages diverse perspectives, two essential ingredients for innovation.

Listening also improves well-being. Being heard reduces feelings of loneliness and increases autonomy. In uncertain times, employees need to feel that leaders understand their concerns and will take action on them. Leaders who listen signal care and build resilience. When employees feel heard during high-stress periods, such as reorgs or major projects, burnout decreases.

Ultimately, listening catalyzes retention. Employees are more likely to stay with organizations where they feel seen and valued. Feeling heard fosters commitment, and high-quality listening from supervisors has been linked to lower emotional exhaustion and higher engagement. Listening, therefore, isn’t just about day-to-day interactions; it’s a strategic lever for retaining top talent.

Making Listening a Leadership Priority

Elevating listening from a polite habit to a strategic priority requires deliberate actions at both the individual and organizational levels.

1. Train leaders in listening skills: Leadership development programs should include modules on high-quality listening. Managers need to learn how to give full attention, ask open-ended questions, reflect back what they hear, and respond appropriately. They should also receive feedback on their listening behaviors and set goals for improvement.
2. Model listening at the top: Senior leaders must demonstrate the listening behaviors they expect from others. That means being present in conversations, pausing before responding, and acknowledging diverse perspectives. When senior leaders model listening, it signals that the organization values and rewards the behavior.
3. Close the loop on feedback: After collecting feedback, leaders must communicate what they heard and what actions will follow. Transparency builds trust. Even when a request can’t be met, explaining the reasons shows respect and can prevent cynicism.
4. Link listening to business outcomes: Organizations should connect listening behaviors with measurable outcomes: engagement scores, retention, innovation metrics, or even revenue growth. When leaders see that listening drives results, they’re more likely to prioritize it.
5. Focus on wellbeing and retention: Recognize that listening affects employee mental health and commitment. Create support systems such as peer support groups and confidential channels that encourage open dialogue. Use listening data to spot early signs of burnout and address them proactively.
6. Embed listening in organizational systems: Develop a listening strategy that incorporates pulse surveys, focus groups, suggestion boxes, and digital platforms. Make sure these channels reach all employees, regardless of role or location. Assign ownership for analyzing feedback, taking action, and reporting progress. Measure the effectiveness of listening initiatives and continuously improve them.
7. Partner with experts: Consider working with organizations like CultureC, which specialize in designing listening strategies around moments that matter. Through tools, workshops, and diagnostics, we help organizations embed listening into leadership development, performance management, and strategic decision-making.

Listening as a Differentiator

In a world where change is constant and employee expectations are rising, listening is no longer optional. It is a leadership superpower and an organizational differentiator. Yet research shows that most leaders aren’t listening well and only a tiny fraction of employees believe they are. To close the gap, leaders must not only develop individual listening skills but also implement organizational strategies that ensure voices are heard and acted upon.

Listening transforms organizations. It fuels engagement, fosters innovation, and builds trust. It reduces miscommunication costs and improves performance. It enhances well-being and reduces burnout. Leaders who prioritize listening create cultures where people are not only productive but also feel valued and connected.

As you evaluate your leadership approach or organizational culture, ask yourself: Do we have systems that support listening at scale? Do our leaders know how to listen deeply and act on what they hear? If not, now is the time to make listening a priority. And if you’re ready to build a listening strategy that drives measurable impact, CultureC can help you turn listening into a competitive advantage.