founder of naked leader
The 50 Greatest Leaders
Naked Leader Week – 49 – Monday 5 April 2004
The 50 Greatest Leaders
Thank you for sending in your nominations (originally I was looking for the 50 greatest living leaders, however when people started nominating Alexander The Great, Churchill and even Hitler, unless they know something that I don’t, I decided to extend it to the 50 Greatest Leaders (“Greatest” by your own definition).
The first list will be in a naked week next week (Tuesday 13 April) and will feature on the new www.nakedleader.com launching on Thursday 1st July.
The greatest compliment we can ever pay…
How many of us really listen to each other? Always ranked as a top ten needed leadership skill, paying total and absolute attention to another is one of the biggest compliments we can ever pay another human being – in person or on the phone.
Do you listen, or simply hear?
Make a true decision right now, that after reading Ralph’s amazing words below, the first person who talks to/with you, that you will listen, really listen – to the words they are saying and to the way they are saying them. It is powerful, and the results are amazing. As you read Ralph’s words, listen to what they say, put them into reality, and you will feel you have entered that person’s world…
With love always, wherever you are
David
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Leadership from a different perspective – Ralph Roughton
On Listening
When I ask you to listen to me and you start by giving me advice, you have not done what I have asked.
When I ask you to listen to me and you begin by telling me why I shouldn’t feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to solve my problems, you have failed me, strange as it may seem.
Listen!
All I ask is that you listen, not talk or do ….. Just hear me. When you do something for me that I can do for myself, you contribute to my fear and inadequacy.
And I can do for myself. I’m not helpless.
Maybe discouraged and faltering, but not helpless.
But, when you accept as simple fact that I do feel what I feel, no matter how irrational, then I can quit trying to convince you and get about the business of understanding what’s behind this irrational feeling.
And when that’s clear the answers are obvious – and I don’t need advise.
Irrational feelings make sense when we understand what is behind them.
Perhaps that’s why prayer works, sometimes, for some people ….. because God is mute, and doesn’t give advise or try to fix things.
God just listens and lets you work it out for yourself.
So, please listen and just hear me. And if you want to talk wait a minute for your turn and I will gladly listen to you.
With thanks to Judith Underhill – Your Business Matters