Listening is very important for good leadership

The Millennials interview with Chan, founder of Exabytes, zeroes in on his experience of managing a regional tech company with over 300 employees.

In his own words, a leader should have to “be a listener at the very least.” Maybe you wouldn’t be able to talk to every employees you have, or you might not even know some of them, but you should always try to listen to everyone. For example, when you have a town hall meeting, avoid talking too much. Let your employees speak their mind.

Most of the time, when leaders take the stage, they gave a lot of info without making a connection with the employees. Chan believes that listening is very important for good leadership. A leader should listen to the voices among the colleagues, customers’ needs and what the market needs.

“Once you listen and absorb the information, you can then understand what they need and execute the right action,” says Chan.

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He strongly believes that trust is very important when it comes to leading a team. With trust among one another in the team, it becomes stronger and moves faster. With trust, a leader can delegate more tasks and roles to team members, thus, driving more efficiency in the company.

Chan also shared one of the fun ways he used to gather feedbacks from the employees. There’s a wishlist at the pantry for employees to submit their wishes. It could be ‘new PS4 Pro’ or even ‘free drinks’, quoted from Chan. It’s an example of how you can engage with your employees when your company is of a certain scale.

Find out more management tips in the full video.

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This article was first published on e27, on March 27, 2018.

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