Jeffrey Sopp makes it a
point to take time out of
his busy schedule as a president and CEO to listen to
his 40 employees and to his
customers.
Each day, Sopp calls at least
two customers to see how
they’re doing and to find out
what Expesite LLC can do better for them.
“A good leader has to listen
carefully not only to the CEOs
and CFOs but also to the people who are the end users, the
people who affect the business
every single day,” he says.
Sopp’s focus on listening has
helped him grow the company,
which provides Web-based
project management for construction and real estate development, to 2007 revenue of
$5.3 million.
Smart Business spoke with
Sopp about how to become a
better listener to help develop
trust with your employees and
clients.
Q. What are the keys to
being a good listener?
Listening skills are not
always innate, they have to be
somewhat learned. You develop great listening skills by
spending a lot of time with a
variety of different people at a
variety of different levels.
When I walk around my
office or when I’m on sales
calls, I try to spend quality
time by sitting down and talking with people and not asking
them stuff that’s just business
related. I am interested in their
families and how their kids are
doing.
It’s the management by wandering around and not be
disingenuous when you ask questions. Ask questions about
what the person just said, ask
clarifying questions.
The way to build loyalty is to
spend time with people. If you
don’t spend time with people,
you can’t build that loyalty and
you can’t fool the troops. So
you’ve got to be genuine with
your questions, and if they ask
you to do something, you better darn well follow up on it.
The benefit is building great
relationships, and the result is
top- and bottom-line success.
Q. How can a leader
become a better
listener?
No. 1, they’ve got to
be prepared to invest
the time. And it’s not a
one-hit wonder strategy,
it is something that has
to be part of the DNA,
not only in the leader,
but the customers —
internal or external —
need to know that that
is part of the culture
that that leader is going
to develop.
They have to practice
effective listening, and
effective listening
means it’s two-way
communication. … It’s
asking a lot of questions
about what that person just
said, not in the back of their
mind worrying about what
issues they have when they
get back to their office.
They have to be prepared to
always follow up and follow
through with that particular
discussion he or she just had,
whether that’s in an e-mail or
a handwritten note or a
phone call to show appreciation, because it’s an investment on that other person’s
time, as well.
