Communication starts with deep listening

Breathe Australia’s Communication Skills Programs are designed to help leaders and teams develop the confidence and clarity to communicate effectively in complex environments. Through practical, interactive workshops, participants build deep listening skills, learn to engage in courageous conversations, recognise and manage communication biases, and speak with authenticity and impact.

Do colleagues and friends say you are a good listener? Whatever role you play in a team, listening is a vital ingredient in your own and the team’s success. Without listening, there is misunderstanding, duplication of effort, disagreements, disengagement, lower well-being, and less creativity. New ideas emerge in the space between people in teams. And when we aren’t listening to each other’s perspectives and insights, we are not making the most of the rich resources we have.

In research, 75% of people think they are above or well above average in their listening abilities. Only 12% of those people rated their colleagues as having above or well above-average abilities. We’re biased – we think we are better than others at listening.

We also know that people can learn to become better listeners. To do so, we need to take a hard look at ourselves and ask friends, colleagues, and loved ones for their views on our abilities. We also need to improve how we listen by emulating those around us who do it well.

Improve your listening skills one conversation at a time – seek to have connected conversations with the people around you. 

Our communication programs

We work with teams to create the right conditions for teammates to have connected conversations with each other. Our training programs focus on:

• Deep listening skills
• Giving and receiving strengths-based feedback
• Understanding and mitigating adverse impacts of common heuristic biases which get in the way of effectiveness and collaboration
• Creating the right conditions for clear communication – creating the right culture

Contact us today to learn more about how our communications programs can drive collaboration, performance and wellbeing.

More about leaders being cultural architects

Leaders are the cultural architects in organisation – by design or default, they create the culture in their teams. Consider the risks of culture by default without intention setting and guidance. In our workshops we work with leaders to understand the importance of creating a sanctuary of inclusiveness and a space that is an incubator of innovation.

Human interaction is a vulnerable activity – create an environment in your team that rewards vulnerability – enabling a performance response rather than a fear response. Enabling the performance response in your team starts with inclusion safety, moves through learner safety, through to contributor safety and finally, challenger safety. Inclusion, safety, and contributor safety enables the rich benefits of challenger safety to be gained – a space where the status quo can be challenged in a place of mutual respect and kindness. This fosters an environment of growth and innovation in your team culture, which is truly exciting.

Contact us today to find out more about our programs.