Observing subjective qualities in others past and present gives us a mental picture for the behaviors we want to practice. Each figure illustrates a quality researched from The Look to Craftsmen Project. When practiced as part of our day-to-day, these qualities will help us develop our mastery in our lives and work.
Listening 101
Image Credit: Britannica
“Each time you learn something new you must readjust the whole framework of your knowledge.”
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 – 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She is the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, supporting her husband through four terms. Roosevelt served as United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 1945 to 1952. President Harry S. Truman later called her the "First Lady of the World" in tribute to her human rights achievements.
Eleanor wrote a newspaper column, My Day, six days a week from 1935 to 1962. From 1961 until 1962, focused on issues such as race, women, and key events (Pearl Harbor, Prohibition, H Bomb, etc.). This column allowed Roosevelt to spread her ideas and thoughts to millions of Americans and give them her perspective on contemporary events.
Throughout Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency, Eleanor traveled extensively around the nation, visiting relief projects, surveying working and living conditions, and then reporting her observations to the President. She traveled to prisons, mines, hospitals, and tenements to gain first-hand knowledge of the nation, and was called “the President's eyes, ears, and legs” for providing objective information to her husband. It is estimated that she traveled over 40,000 miles each year as the First lady.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States entered WWII, Mrs. Roosevelt made certain that the President did not abandon the goals he had put forth in the New Deal. She also exercised her own political and social influence. She was a force in the Democratic party throughout the 1950s. Upon her death in 1962, the world knew that it had lost a unique individual. In the words of Winston Churchill, "she left golden footprints behind."
Deep listening—where the other feels not only heard but seen and represented—is not a passive experience. It implies an ongoing practice of questioning one’s awareness, synthesizing information, and responding.
A question and answer session with Eleanor Roosevelt during which she discusses the United Nations, women's suffrage, her uncle President Theodore Roosevelt, criticism of her actions as First Lady, FDR's presidency, the Cold War, and the next generation of leaders in government. Film ID 59-6. Copyrighted by NBC.
The My Day columns are the most important source on Eleanor Roosevelt. They shed insight into the inner workings of the Roosevelt administration, how they governed, how they viewed Washington, and how they lived their lives in the White House.
The articles show Eleanor’s thought over time, how her opinions changed, what FDR’s engaged in, how she’s trying to help pitch that activity and develop strong public support for it. What started as drab accounts of her daily routine, by 1939 had become major policy pieces covering FDRs budget, the Holocaust, latest news from Europe—and helping FDRs themes (like what it meant for the U.S. to become the arsenal of democracy) land with the general public. Eleanor developed a rapport with the American people, soliciting their input with the invitation, “I want you to write to me.”
Eleanor Roosevelt was an early champion of civil rights. African American educator and activist Mary McLeod Bethune, whom she met in the 1920s, first helped her understand the difficulties and discrimination black people encountered every day. Eleanor played an important role in the creation of an executive order that prohibited discrimination in industries engaged in military production early in World War II. She supported the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II and joined the board of directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. More liberal than her husband in some areas, Eleanor commented that she sometimes “acted as a spur, even though the spurring was not always wanted.”
Listening 101
Listening well requires a high degree of focus, energy, and attention to detail. We are listening for emotions, inflections, and facts—to hear what is “underneath” what is being said.
David Bohme, a quantum physicist, suggests we are active participants in an energy field. As we think and move, so does the universe. We have only to observe the impact of an extremely buoyant, energetic person entering a group versus someone with a toxic personality. Ever notice what happens to the group?
The same thing happens with creativity. As we give others our attention, we catalyze their creativity (or lack of it) as well as our own. Our work together both deepens and accelerates.
Listening well requires a high degree of focus, energy, and attention to detail. We are listening for emotions, inflections, and facts. We need to understand the players and the game being played. Knowing the audience lends further context.
It is important to listen within the context of these four questions because in today’s world the groups we swim among include our competitors, our partners, leaders from diverse industries and backgrounds, with multiple agendas involved. Understanding these agendas means knowing the context of those involved. This includes what is important to the company, as well as the other person’s personal agenda. The company may demand a customer-centric solution. But the other person involved may be looking for a new role, or need their ego fed. Knowing these subtexts helps us identify the sacred cows, the hot buttons, and core beliefs.
Listening to facts is fairly easy. Using techniques to ensure understanding, like restating or paraphrasing help. Taking notes helps.
Along with the facts, we can be thinking about their consequences. Notes help highlight issues requiring further discussion. People normally think in terms of how consequences impact their jobs, salaries, workloads, etc.
Influencing the outcome is where our listening skills pay off. If we’ve listened to the facts, and taken into consideration the potential consequences, we can begin to shape the group’s understanding by making our observations part of the conversation. Once issues are out in the open, people tend to want to resolve them in ways that forward their agendas. At that point, they are generally more open to others’ points of view.
So how do we learn to listen more deeply amidst all the distractions?
PRACTICE
When creative leaders listen in business, they keep four questions in mind:
- What is the agenda of the person speaking?
- What is actually being said?
- What are the implications of what is being said to those hearing it?
- How can the outcome be influenced, if necessary?
Margaret Atwood is exceptional at listening. Her skills have enabled her to “see the field” around her, choose the relevant facts, and create entire universes that have a predictive moral message. How can you apply these questions to frame or solve problems in your own context?
COMMIT
[ ] I commit myself to deeper listening as a means toward more creative problem-solving.
FURTHER READING
You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life: Eleanor offers a wise and intimate guide on how to overcome fears, embrace challenges as opportunities, and cultivate civic pride. She provides a manual of personal exploration that stands the test of time. Courage, character, and self-knowledge are in demand now more than ever.
My Day: The Best Of Eleanor Roosevelt's Acclaimed Newspaper Columns, 1936-1962: This collection brings together the most memorable of those columns—everything from her personal perspectives on the New Deal and World War II to the painstaking diplomacy required of her as chair of the United Nations Committee on Human Rights after the war to the joys of gardening at her beloved Hyde Park home.
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History chronicles the lives of Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor Roosevelt, three members of the most prominent and influential family in American politics. It is the first time in a major documentary television series that their individual stories have been interwoven into a single narrative. It is an intimate human story about love, betrayal, family loyalty, personal courage, and the conquest of fear.
In her words…
“It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.”
“People can surmount what seems to be total defeat, difficulties too great to be borne, but it requires a capacity to readjust endlessly to the changing conditions of life.” ― You Learn by Living
“Perhaps the most essential thing for a continuing education is to develop the capacity to know what you see and to understand what it means. Many people seem to go through life without seeing.”
“I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.”
“One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility”
“All of life is a constant education.”— The Wisdom Of Eleanor Roosevelt
“To be mature you have to realize what you value most... Not to arrive at a clear understanding of one's own values is a tragic waste. You have missed the whole point of what life is for.” ― You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life
“When you know to laugh and when to look upon things as too absurd to take seriously, the other person is ashamed to carry through even if he was serious about it.”
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” ― This is My Story
“A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it's in hot water.” ―
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” ― You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life
“Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence.” ― The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt
“One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. When you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else.”
“A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and in all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all-knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity.”― It Seems to Me: Selected Letters
“Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn't have the power to say yes.”
“Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life. ”
What we don’t see on the resumes we review or the job descriptions we want is the litany of emotional entanglements we bring to our roles, uninvited, to the team and organizations we work in. Alongside technical skills, people who can master a range of subjective skills are better able to influence, deal with ambiguity, bounce back from setbacks, think creatively, and manage themselves in the presence of setbacks. In short, those who learn lead.
Observing subjective qualities in others past and present gives us a mental picture for the behaviors we want to practice. Each figure illustrates a quality researched from The Look to Craftsmen Project. When practiced as part of our day-to-day, these qualities will help us develop our mastery in our lives and work.