Hello, team!

This week, with our micro-training series Relationships in the Workplace, let’s take our professional connections to the next level.
Today’s Topic: Effective and Caring Listening

There’s nothing that makes us feel more valued than being truly heard. Listening isn’t just a courtesy—it’s an act of acknowledgment. Our work, which requires constant productivity, often operates at a breakneck pace with full agendas, notifications, and back-to-back meetings. As a result, listening has become a luxury… when it should be the starting point.

We need to become more aware of one of the most powerful, yet overlooked, tools: caring and effective listening.

Are You Hearing or Are You Listening?

Most of the time, we assume we’re listening simply because we hear the words. But hearing and listening are not the same:

• Hearing is picking up sounds.

• Listening is paying attention to a whole universe of thoughts and feelings.

When you truly listen, you manage the urge to interrupt or judge. It’s not about correcting what the other person is saying; it’s about understanding their perspective. That means recognizing how the other person views the situation.

In the workplace, we often believe our goal is a quick response or an efficient solution. But sometimes, empathy and understanding are what someone truly needs, beyond a fix.

The Office Is Also an Emotional Stage

There are silences in the hallways that speak louder than any report.
There are emails that seem neutral but carry frustration.
There are meetings where what matters most isn’t what was said, but what no one dared to mention.

That’s why listening is an art: it requires reading between the lines, sensing the context, and looking beyond the words.

Listening is also seeing.

Why Is It So Hard to Listen Well at Work?

Part of it may be fear:

• Fear of opening a conversation and not knowing how it will end.

• Fear that listening to someone else means changing our mind, giving up power, or bending our structure.

• Fear that if we listen too much, we’ll lose precious working time.

But the opposite is true.

Listening doesn’t weaken us—it humanizes us and builds genuine relationships.

So we have to decide: Is our goal to be “right,” or is our goal to understand so we can respond appropriately?

What Listening Reveals in the Workplace

Listening uncovers hidden talents, unsaid conflicts, and brilliant ideas that weren’t voiced out of fear. It reveals emotions that impact performance far more than any metric.

And most importantly, it keeps us human.

A team that listens and builds together creates a culture of improvement and trust. It’s a team focused on collaboration, not competition. Most importantly, it’s a team where emotional absenteeism simply doesn’t exist.

Listening, then, isn’t just a soft skill; it’s a strategy for organizational culture.

Three Practices to Cultivate Listening at Work

1. Pause Before Responding
   Don’t react on autopilot. Take a breath, restate what you heard, and ask,

   “Is this what you meant?”

2. Watch the Body, Not Just the Words
   Tone, gestures, pauses—sometimes the body says what the mouth keeps quiet.

3. Listen to What Wasn’t Said
   What topic did your colleague avoid? What emotion seemed to surface but wasn’t named? That’s where the real message lies.

Listening doesn’t take time—it saves you problems.

• A well-listened meeting prevents a crisis.

• A well-listened feedback session sparks change.

• A sincere “How are you?” can stop someone from resigning silently.

You don’t need to be a psychologist. Just be human.

What Is Created When People Are Truly Heard

Listening opens space. And where there’s space, what was trapped can flourish:

• New Ideas

• Collaborative Solutions

• Empathy

• A Sense of Belonging

This is where we add another ingredient to the culture we’re building: commitment. Because when you listen to me, I matter to you. And when I matter to you, I follow you.

Challenge of the Week

During this week, choose at least one meeting (group or individual) in which you commit to listening and ensuring that you genuinely understand what’s on someone else’s mind.

• Do not interrupt or finish their sentences.

• Just listen.

When the conversation ends, ask yourself:

“What changed in me after listening deeply to this person?”

If you want to go further, write it down. You’ll see how listening transforms you, too.

Adrian Rojas