Business Is Complex—Listen For Nuances To Improve Your Leadership Reputation

Your reputation is built in the hard moments. I haven’t always liked this truth as an individual who strives to have a positive impact but who is human and makes mistakes, perhaps just like you. However, it is a universal truth. It’s in these challenging times that we must shift our focus from ourselves to consider our impact on others, for it is through this awareness that we can actively shape a better path forward.

In almost a decade of working with entrepreneurial businesses and their teams, one thing I have learned is that business is complex. Rarely do we find super simple, clear-cut answers to the problems we face as a team.

I wish it were simple. If it were, there wouldn’t be a need for business coaches or training programs like our Empowering Leadership Programs, of which I am proudly the Program Director. As an executive coach, I have the privilege of seeing the inner workings of many companies. This window into other organizations has shown me that imperfection often gives birth to successful innovation and that the bumpy parts contribute greatly to our overall success. Because of this, I have developed deeper compassion for myself and my own team when things don’t go according to plan. I have learned to navigate the complexity and ride out the waves.

What happens within organizations is often a microcosm of what is happening in the world at large. The way emotions can rise when stakes are high, how it is difficult to take in someone else’s perspective that seems foreign to your own, and how easy it is to feel personally slighted when your idea is not chosen. These are just a few of the challenges that frequently occur in business and in an even larger way beyond our computer screens and outside our windows.

To anchor myself when the storms brew, I thought I’d join the popular New Year trend of picking a word for the year. A word that helps me remember my commitment to being a force for positive change in these turbulent times and helps me stabilize when the waters get stormy.

My word for 2024 has been "nuance," and it has been so powerful that I intend to keep it as my anchor for 2025. Here’s why. Nuance is defined as a subtle difference in shade of meaning, expression, or sound. I recently noticed how I put focused effort into understanding someone if we speak different languages. It requires my full attention, and I listen to capture the fuller meaning beyond the words, considering all the nuances. I am open to the fact that nuances exist, so much more so than if I am speaking with someone who speaks my same language. Unfortunately, I have noticed that I make assumptions of understanding too quickly if we speak the same language. I also move even quicker with my assumptions when receiving the communications of others I interact with daily, whether at home, work, or in my community.

Shift from Self-Focus to Impact Awareness

Here's the biggest challenge: active listening is not the natural default human setting. We are hard-wired to be more focused on our own survival. In a modern-day business setting, this often means we are most focused on having the best response. That is why we must consciously choose to be intentional and practice active listening.

By actively listening and being attuned to the nuances in conversations, we can begin to shift our perspective from self-preservation to understanding how our words and actions impact others. This shift in focus can lead to more thoughtful interactions, helping us to truly connect with those around us and fostering a more collaborative environment.

What we long for is a sense of being heard and understood. Active listening, the kind that listens with the intention to understand beyond the surface, is paramount to the best collaborative thinking and problem-solving. It doesn’t matter to me if an idea I put forward doesn’t get chosen in a team meeting, but what does matter to me is that my idea was heard, and others listened in hopes of understanding my vision. If that has occurred and it is not the right idea for the business at that point and time, no problem. I have also witnessed this being true for other business leaders.

Nuances lead us to greater understanding and, therefore, connection. When we listen for where we agree, we find more alignment. When we collaborate well within business, we seek out the ways our ideas build upon each other and give birth to a greater solution than any one mind would have found.

True Leadership and Team Dynamics

True leadership is knowing how to harness the power of the group think tank and being excited that you have more than just your one brain to solve any given problem. I am so grateful to be part of a team. I want you to harness the joy and accomplishments that come from being on a team working together to achieve results, but please know it isn’t always easy, and that is good.

Daring to truly hear and understand an idea that seems contrary to your own requires courage. Why does that other person have such a different perspective? If you listen for the nuances and choose to ask more questions of that person, often a valuable nugget is revealed. Perhaps the person’s solution is flawed, but why they propose the solution is because they see a potential problem that others have missed. Now that potential problem has surfaced, and the negative impact is avoided because we work this new awareness into our overall solution. That is a big win.

Will you join me in looking for the nuance in your connection to others? Listen to understand. On the surface, communication can be misleading. Sometimes we are saying the same thing or agreeing more than we realize, but all we really hear and focus on is what we disagree with because that strongly jumps out at us. I invite you to silence the part of you that feels an urge to be right or make someone else wrong.

Don’t let the louder voices of the larger world, the ones that stir up our fear and keep us from truly hearing one another, dominate. If we do this, I believe we can work together to turn the tide. Remember, being human is challenging. And being in business is complex. We will face many challenges in the year ahead, but we never lose the ability to choose how we show up.

Remember, life is filled with nuance—get curious and show up. Leadership is calling!

You’ve got this!
Heather.