The listening advantage: Why leaders who hear more lead better

In a tense boardroom in Johannesburg, the team sat frozen. A product launch had failed miserably. Fingers pointed. Voices rose. But the CEO did something unexpected. He leaned back, clasped his hands, and said, “I want to hear what didn’t work, from every level, not just from this room.” Then, he went silent.

What happened next changed everything. Over the next two weeks, that CEO sat in quiet conversations with interns, customer service reps, and junior developers, people who rarely made it into decision-making spaces. They told him things no report had captured. He listened. Really listened. No interruptions. No rebuttals. Just questions and presence.

“And in today’s overstimulated, hyper-communicated workplaces, leaders who listen with intention hold the competitive advantage.”

Within 90 days, the company had restructured its customer onboarding, revised its pricing model, and tripled its user retention. That CEO didn’t lead the turnaround with charisma or control. He led with curiosity. He gave his people the one thing most leaders fail to offer: his full attention.

Listening is not a passive activity. It is not something leaders do when they are done talking. It is not filler between meetings or a polite pause in a performance review. Listening is a leadership strategy. And in today’s overstimulated, hyper-communicated workplaces, leaders who listen with intention hold the competitive advantage.

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According to a 2024 LinkedIn Workplace Culture Report, 83 percent of employees say they feel more engaged and loyal to leaders who make them feel heard. Yet only 27 percent say their leaders regularly solicit or act on their input. The disconnect isn’t technical, it is relational.

Too many leaders equate silence with weakness, or they rush to respond rather than reflect. But when leaders pause, listen, and lean in, without immediately correcting, advising, or deflecting they unlock something rare: psychological safety. That is the space where innovation, loyalty, and trust are born.

Listening isn’t about control; it is about connection. It tells your team, “You matter. Your experience matters. Your insight shapes our future.” And that message is more powerful than any motivational speech or strategic plan.

Let’s go deeper. What makes listening such a rare commodity in leadership?

For one, we live in a world where speaking is rewarded. Leaders are praised for vision casting, delivering keynotes, and making tough calls. But no one gives out awards for deep listening. The irony is that behind every great speech is a leader who first listened well to the market, to the culture, to the people.

Real listening costs something: ego, speed, and the illusion of certainty. But what it gives back is far more valuable: insight, alignment, and long-term influence.

In my work coaching executives across five continents, I have found that listening is most powerful when it follows three disciplines:

First, listen for patterns, not just problems. Good listeners hear complaints. Great listeners hear signals. A drop in morale, a repeated frustration, an offhand comment, these aren’t just noise; they are navigational cues. When leaders train themselves to hear beneath the surface, they unlock early warnings and emerging opportunities long before metrics catch up.

Second, listen with your presence, not just your ears. Nothing betrays inattention like a distracted gaze or a rushed response. In a fast-paced world, presence is rare and therefore powerful. When a leader puts their phone down, closes their laptop, and locks eyes with someone, they communicate: “You are worth my full attention.” That message, more than your authority, builds followership.

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Third, listen before you lead. The best leaders don’t walk into the room with all the answers. They walk in with better questions. What’s keeping us stuck? What do we need to stop assuming? Who’s not in the room that should be? When leaders ask questions with humility, they open space for collective ownership, and that is where transformation begins.

A 2023 MIT Sloan study revealed that companies with leaders who regularly solicit employee feedback outperform their competitors by up to 21% in customer satisfaction and retention. The reason is simple: listening closes the gap between strategy and reality. You can’t fix what you can’t feel, and you can’t feel what you refuse to hear.

Leadership today isn’t about being the loudest voice in the room. It’s about being the wisest listener in the room. And wisdom comes from hearing what others miss, because you stayed long enough, quiet enough, to notice.

So here is the challenge: In your next meeting, speak less. Ask more. Replace assumptions with questions. Before your next one-on-one, clear your distractions, not just your schedule. Before your next town hall, walk the hallway. Ask the receptionist what no one’s asking her. Ask the intern what’s confusing to them. You might just hear the truth that’s been trying to reach you.

Because in the end, the leader who hears more leads better, not because they have all the answers, but because they are trusted enough to find them with others.

Leadership isn’t just a voice to follow. It is an ear that listens. And when your people know they are heard, they will go further than you imagined because they will no longer be walking alone.

Leadership begins where listening starts.

About the author:

Dr Toye Sobande is a strategic leadership expert, executive coach, lawyer, public speaker, and trainer. He is the CEO of Stephens Leadership Consultancy LLC, a strategy and management consulting firm offering creative insight and solutions to businesses and leaders. Email: [email protected]