University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
The Listening Leader
Book

The Listening Leader

How to Drive Performance by Using Communicative Leadership

Emilio Galli Zugaro and Clementina Galli Zugaro
FT Press, 2017
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Well Structured
  • Overview

Recommendation

Leaders’ ability to listen determines their success or failure and the fate of their organization. Communications specialist Emilio Galli Zugaro and behavioral expert Clementina Galli Zugaro help leaders learn a management style built on solid communication skills. Leaders can respond more effectively, even amid turmoil, by applying this approach within their organizations and in communication with their stakeholders. They can increase their ability to meet their company’s needs, support their employees and boost their competitiveness by learning to communicate and to listen. This includes accepting and learning from failure and knowing how to best utilize your employees. getAbstract recommends this detailed manual to all senior executives.

Summary

“The Trust Meltdown”

Since the 1990s, people have become wary of a range of institutions – especially in the corporate sector. Some call this trend the trust meltdown. In this atmosphere, social media supply individual consumers with enormous power. One person online can demolish a reputation that took an organization many years to build. When people lose faith in a company, they stop being customers and tell their friends to stop as well.

Organizations must connect with customers through the work of their employees. Consumers trust the staff members they work with more than they trust executives or promotional materials. Most people would rather rely on the word of an “average employee” than on that of the CEO or a PR professional. Your employees must listen to your stakeholders and help reshape your organization so stakeholders trust in and feel more excited about it.

Paying attention to your stakeholders is the core of communicative leadership, which requires “listening leaders.” These leaders practice empathy and listen actively to people inside and outside their organizations. Leaders and companies must win or regain stakeholders’ trust. ...

About the Authors

Emilio Galli Zugaro is chairman of Methodos SpA in Milan and teaches communication at several European universities. Clementina Galli Zugaro, his daughter, specializes in psychology and organizational psychology.

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