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| What do you notice? What do you observe? How does what you observe influence how you will respond? |
During my time here, I've learned to exercise the skills of observing and listening. These have been ongoing skills that I've learned over the years. You especially encounter this sort of thing when you build a relationship with someone who has a different background from you and you desire to hear their persective and put yourself in their shoes for a little bit. I've come to realize that people want to be heard. People want to be recognized and people long to know that they are significant. I believe we were designed this way. In this context of working with a team comprised of people with such different skill sets and personalities, you soon realize some of the ways that each member operates. You see people who love structure and organization, you see those who are detail-oriented, you see those with vision who can easily get others excited, you see those who enjoy spontainaeity, you see those who are deep thinkers and you see those who tend to process their thoughts aloud, you see those who will strike up a conversation with the mail man or taxi driver, you see different approaches to leadership as well as different fears and dreams. All in all you see variety! The thing I've been thinking about is how observing and listening to individuals allows us to get to know them and come to understand what "makes them tick." There have been many opportunites to talk (and much talking I've done!), but there is also something valuable about choosing to observe and listen in a given situation because sometimes choosing to observe and listen allow us more perspective than if we chose to try to override another person and just talk. I caution you that sometimes this intentional choice to listen and observe may come across as being distant or disengaged; however, the long term benefits of your choice will become evident in due time. I suppose this relates to the love langugae thing I talked about before. It's the idea of taking time to notice attributes and patterns of other people and then respond to them in a way that makese sense to them. Of course we bring our own personality into the mix of things, but what I want to highlight is the act of intentionally choosing to notice the other and act in response to them. I think this may say something about my personal approach to leadership. hehe. I've reminded people before that every action we do means something. Everything says something and I argue there is the element of intentionality to every [even little] choice we make. So I continue to challenge myself to intentionally listen and observe so that I'm better equipped to serve and love others. What do you say? Agree? Disagree? Up for the challenge? I'd love to hear your thoughts!
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