Toddler Leadership Skills

In "Who's the Boss? What We Can Learn about Leadership from Two-Year-Olds," in the Exchange Essential, Leading People, Kathy Price-Pillow points out that two-year-olds "have natural leadership skills. That means that they know what to do to get others to do what they want."  She cites the example of listening skills:  

"Many of us have learned that when you are around young children, you have to watch what you say. If not, you are bound to hear them repeat something that you would prefer they didn’t! Why is that? It’s because two-year-olds are excellent listeners. In fact, their listening skills are far superior to that of many adults. To them listening is power — the power to learn, grow, and develop.

"Two-year-olds learn about their world by listening, and great leaders can do the same. If leaders will commit themselves to learn better listening skills, they will find it leads to better recollection of important facts and issues later on, and results in fewer miscommunications. Improving your listening skills tends to increase people’s respect for you; people tend to like, and respond better to, those who take the time to listen to them.   

"Great leaders understand that talking is not the most important part of communication. Many excellent leaders employ what they call the 80/20 rule of communication; they are committed to letting others talk 80 percent of the time, and allow themselves to talk 20 percent of the time. That means they listen a lot more than they speak. It is amazing what you can learn about your workplace and your employees simply by listening."

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