Communication
Active Listening
Hearing what people are actually saying instead of waiting for your turn to talk.
Active listening is the difference between hearing words and understanding what someone is telling you. Most conversations at work run on partial attention: you're tracking the general shape of what's being said while also planning your response, checking whether you agree, and waiting for a gap to jump in. Active listening means setting that second track aside long enough to actually take in what the other person means, not just what they said. It matters because most workplace friction — the meeting that goes nowhere, the feedback that lands wrong, the "I told you that already" — traces back to someone not being heard the first time.
Scenarios
A teammate vents in standup. Someone says their ticket has been blocked for two days by a dependency on another team, and their voice has an edge to it. What would you do — jump straight to "have you tried pinging their lead," or ask what's actually been tried so far and how they're feeling about the delay before offering anything?
A direct report raises workload in a 1:1. They say, carefully, that the last two sprints have felt like too much. You have a plan ready: shift one project to next quarter. What would you do — deliver the plan immediately, or check first whether "too much" means the volume of work, the context-switching, or something about how the work is being assigned?
A stakeholder pushes back on your proposal in a cross-functional review. Their objection sounds, on first pass, like they haven't read the doc. What would you do — correct the record point by point, or ask one question to find out which part of the proposal they think won't work, and why?
Takeaway
- Let the other person finish their sentence before you start forming yours.
- Before responding, reflect back what you heard in your own words — "so the blocker is X" — and let them correct it if you got it wrong.
- Ask one clarifying question before offering a solution, even when the solution seems obvious.
- Notice when you've stopped listening and started rehearsing your reply. When you catch it, pause and refocus on what's actually being said.
- Treat "I understood you" and "I agree with you" as two separate statements. Say the first one out loud before deciding whether the second one is true.