Quality listening in the boardroom: are you guilty of tuning out or turning off someone who is speaking to you?

• Author: Martel, Myles
• Position: AT YOUR BEST

BASED ON A recent survey conducted by our firm, 80 percent of a board member's meeting time is spent listening. Yet our research also reveals that poor listening is the most serious and common issue leaders face as communicators.

Quality listening can pay numerous dividends. At a minimum, it can facilitate comprehension and create a stronger platform for board members to ask incisive questions conducive to enlightened decision making. As John Whitehead, former chairman of Goldman Sachs, has wisely counseled: "The best leaders do a lot of listening ... you can't learn anything when you're talking."

A board member's listening style also communicates. By listening well, the board member can not only convey interest in the issue, the person communicating, or both, but also help project such traits as self-assurance, composure, intelligence, and authority. Therefore, the adage "a leader cannot not communicate" has special pertinence in the board setting, where keen sensitivity to verbal and nonverbal cues can help board members and managers interpret reactions to those present, and, as a result, better gauge whether, when, and how to respond. Moreover, since quality listening has been increasingly valued in the corporate world, it can enhance the board member's credibility--especially perceptions of competence and goodwill.

Perfect listening is impossible. It's not a realistic goal for anyone, including board members. The standard to aspire to is highest-quality listening.

In any analysis of the factors that tend to undermine quality listening, four are especially pertinent to board meetings:

1. Lack of Understanding. The board member tunes out because he cannot understand the presentation or exchange. Often, this pattern is attributable not only to presentation weaknesses but, as well, to the board member either not having done his homework or not being properly briefed by the chair or some other party.

2. Lack of Respect for the Board Member. This phenomenon can be communicated by the chair's or any board member's apparent reluctance to invite the member's input; the tendency to not reinforce it (while demonstrating an obvious pattern of reinforcing others), reject it undiplomatically, cut it short prematurely, or refute it too aggressively.

3. Lack of Emotional Control. A major impediment to quality listening, this factor has many root causes and manifestations. Among the more common is a pattern of anxiety reflected in impatience, inability to...