Janie Van Hool - Listening Shift: Transform your organization by listening to your people and helping your people listen to you

It feels long overdue to have a meaningful conversation about listening. We are seeing mental health issues moving into the mainstream and merging home and work lives could either help us to be more human or paradoxically less connected. Listening could be the next real leadership challenge, so this is an important book. I love the language and the tone helpful not preachy, practical and yet underpinned by solid research and experience.

Dr Sue Round, HRVP Talent, Diversity and Inclusion at BP

This book is a transformational read that takes us far beyond what we often think listening is about, into essential areas of human communication, connection and understanding. The book is rich with storytelling, research and tips relevant to all of us in our personal and professional lives. The breadth of the writers experience from the theatre to global business enables her to take us on a compelling journey to explore whats possible when we unlock the full power of listening.

Cath Bishop, author of The Long Win

In a world which demands us to constantly shift being a great listener really does matter now more than ever. By uniting both theory and practice, van Hool confidently brings the idea to life and offers practical steps to achieve this, whether in a one-on-one setting or in the context of a large organisation. All of us, coaches, teachers, leaders, parents, friends will benefit from the useful prompts offered.

Dr Caroline Horner, i-coach academy

This book is conversational, engaging, moving and above all really helpful. We all know the power of making fundamental shifts in how we think and what we do but making those shifts stick, so they just become who we are, is another thing altogether. The writers real examples of listening and being listened to are relevant and they resonate. Combine those with her practical tips, then you have a book that delivers one you will go back to again and again over the years, and a book that you will definitely gift to others.

Judith Batchelar OBE, Director of Corporate Responsibility, Sustainability & Public Affairs

You cannot be heard as a leader if you do not learn to listen. This book teaches the fundamentals of both. An invaluable read for any manager who actively wants to become a more skilled listener and communicate more effectively.

Chris Schulze-Melander, CEO Eat Real & Proper

Not only a fascinating and easy read, but full of generous advice, broad examples and practical shifts that blend the art of communication with the gift of listening! Id expect nothing less from Janie, who is a master of communication.

Carol Welch, Managing Director, UK, Ireland & Commercial Officer Europe Odeon Cinemas Group

There were points in Janies book that pulled me up short and really made me question whether I was as good a listener as I thought I was.

Alan Robertson, Business Psychologist and creator of VoicePrint

Leadership is about creating followers. Here is a powerful toolkit to understand the importance and techniques of making the shift to listening deeply, at all levels to establish connections and crafting relevant dialogue so that leaders can achieve engagement and are themselves listened to. Great job.

Paul Griffith, Professor of Practice, Hult International Business School

A practical guide essential to anyone making things happen in organisations. This is a topic that leaders overlook when pushing for improvements in how we work.

Hamish Scott, Founder, Centre for Management Research in Action, Business school Professor and fractional strategy director

The writer brings the insights from working with leaders in all kinds of organisations, debunks the myth that real leaders give orders, demonstrates how listening underpins successful leaders at all levels and provides the practical steps to get going.

Keith Leslie, Chair of Samaritans, author of A Question of Leadership, former McKinsey and Deloitte partner

First published in Great Britain by Practical Inspiration Publishing, 2021

Janie van Hool, 2021

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

ISBN 9781788602570 (print)

9781788602563 (epub)

9781788602556 (mobi)

All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof, may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the author.

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.

For Russell, Tilly and Bella

It isnt what you have in your pocket that makes you thankful, but what you have in your heart.

Anon

Contents

Foreword

When you look out of a train window, the trees up close fly by in a blur, the fields in the middle distance glide past, and the far-off hills dont appear to move at all. Similarly, in public life: newspaper headlines fly by in a blur, political shifts glide past, and the natural world doesnt appear to move at all. Or so it was until the climate crisis began to distort and accelerate environmental change. Today, it is as if when we look out of the train window, we can see the far-off hills gathering speed, shifting gear, and catching up with our train.

I was first introduced to Janie van Hool, shortly after being appointed the UK Commissioner to the Global Commission on Adaptation. Co-chaired by Ban ki-Moon, Kristalina Georgieva and Bill Gates, the Commission was set up to provide greater political visibility to the need to prepare for climate shocks too much water, too little water, too hot, too cold and wildfires. This was a huge opportunity for me to showcase the work of the Environment Agency, which I chair, on the global stage, and shine a spotlight on the growing evidence that people all over the world, at every income level, are already being affected in one way or another by climate change. I needed to up my game as a communicator, experience my own shift, and Janie offered to help.

As we started to work together, it became abundantly clear how important it is to start with listening and this is the focus of Janies wonderful book. She reveals how we are not taught how to listen, and that we need to address this before we can really engage with each other. How we need to be bolder about how we challenge ourselves to listen well. And that we need to communicate in a way that helps other people to listen to us. This is especially important where messages are hard to hear, and we need to find ways to help people engage.

I do hope the practical steps that Janie has set out in The Listening Shift are as helpful to you, as they have been to me, and become a resource that you can dip into time and time again. Janie is not only generous with her insight but also her emphasis on others and being kind. So, rather than issue a spoiler alert, I leave you with a quote from Jane Austen which captures for me the essence of Janies advice: Emma felt that she could not now show greater kindness than in listening.