An owner calls me and says: “I don’t understand why my team never tells me about problems. I always find out when it’s too late”.
The answer is simple: because they stopped listening.
Not in the literal sense. They hear what the team says. But they don’t listen. And the difference is huge.
Listening actively means being present with 100% of your attention, not preparing your answer while the other person speaks, not interrupting to tell my version, not reacting right away with a solution or a criticism.
The difference is this: I hear the words, but I don’t grasp what’s behind them. If my boss talks to me about a problem and is already formulating the solution in their head while I speak, I understood it. I stop talking. Next time I won’t talk at all.
Where many owners get it wrong.
The team comes to say: “Look, we have a problem”. And the boss immediately answers with the solution, or worse, with a criticism. “You should have done it this way”, “Didn’t you notice earlier?”, “Now we fix it like this and that’s it”.
What the team reads is: “I don’t care what you think. I just want you to do what I say”.
So the team stops coming to them with problems. They solve them alone, or hide them. And the owner is left exposed: the real problems reach them when they have already become crises.
What changes when you really listen?
Take your team. Someone reports a problem. You stop everything. You close the computer. You look that person in the eye. You listen. You don’t prepare your answer. You ask questions to understand better. “Tell me since when you noticed it”, “What impact did it have?”, “What do you think is needed to solve it?”.
It’s not something you learn. It’s something you practise.
The first time feels strange. The team expects your reaction, the criticism, the quick solution. Instead you listen. Little by little, the team starts to share more. They start touching more delicate topics. They start trusting that you won’t react, but will try to understand.
This is the moment you start seeing the real state of the company again. Not what the team wants you to see, but what is actually there.
It’s simple, but it’s not easy.
It means setting haste aside. It means resisting the urge to judge. It means staying with the discomfort of not having a solution right away. It means tolerating that the team does it “wrong” before understanding why.
The advantage is huge. A team that speaks freely is a team that warns you about problems while they are still small. One that suggests better solutions because it knows you will really listen. One that doesn’t shut down when the boss walks into the meeting.
If your team doesn’t talk, it’s not their problem. It’s a problem with how you listen.
How long has it been since you asked your team a question without already knowing the answer you want to hear?