“Leadership is defined by listening.”

In this Conversing Short, Mark Labberton explains the essential role listening plays in leadership and successful communication.  Leaders are often known for what they’ve said publicly or privately, but in actual fact, the experience of leadership and the effectiveness of leadership is determined by the mutuality of listening and learning that goes on between the primary leader and the team that they’re working with at any given time. Here, Mark shares from his decades of leadership experience as a Presbyterian minister and seminary president.

About Conversing Shorts

“In between my longer conversations with people who fascinate and inspire and challenge me, I share a short personal reflection, a focused episode that brings you the ideas, stories, questions, ponderings, and perspectives that animate Conversing and give voice to the purpose and heart of the show. Thanks for listening with me.”

About Mark Labberton

Mark Labberton is the Clifford L. Penner Presidential Chair Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Preaching at Fuller Seminary. He served as Fuller’s fifth president from 2013 to 2022. He’s the host of Conversing.

Show Notes

• Relationships of trust
• “ Listening is as critical to the existence of leadership as it is to the partnership of leadership.”
• “ If we don't have listening, then the partnership that leadership requires simply can't exist.”
• What leadership is really about: the people you’re leading are known, served, discovered, changed, renewed
• Tone-deaf leaders: leaders who are out of touch
• If you don’t want to be out of touch or tone deaf, “enter the room listening.”
• “Leaders are often known for what they’ve said publicly or privately, but in actual fact, the experience of leadership and the effectiveness of leadership is determined by the mutuality of listening and learning that goes on between the primary leader and the team that they’re working with at any given time.”
• Mutuality of learning and listening together—adding oxygen to the room
• Bringing part of yourself versus bringing your whole self to a leadership relationship
• “ Let’s not listen to one another first critically and negatively. Let’s listen to one another with hope, with earnestness, with a genuine desire to receive their perspective and letting that actually inform how we lead.”
• “When I ran into people who are having difficulties with their senior leader, it’s almost always around the leader’s failure to listen. At one level or another, they are not hearing the people that they’re leading.”
• “A leader who doesn't listen is like a person deciding to jump off a cliff. …  The longer they don’t listen, the more they are isolated by themselves and at risk.”
• Leadership enriched by an understanding of each other
• “A shared communion of decision making”

Production Credits

Conversing is produced and distributed in partnership with Comment magazine and Fuller Seminary.