When people fail to listen adequately in the workplace, even in seemingly straightforward transactions, it can lead to errors that are completely avoidable, people’s feelings being unintentionally disrespected and the next big idea buried without a trace.

Here are my top 3 results that effective listening creates for businesses of all kinds. I have observed these benefits first-hand with leaders across the world over my twenty-year consulting career.

Be Sustainable. Plus, Save Time and Effort.

With all the rage about sustainability in business, effective listening saves organizations millions of dollars’ worth of time and space. How? They use less paper and reduce the effort it usually takes to process and act on information.

Most leaders I talk to insist that their employees must write down emails to officially record communication even after verbal conversations. Putting everything into writing, even the minutest of details, is no doubt a surefire way of planning and achieving goals.

However, paper trails are notorious for causing red tape when many organizations are leaning towards flatter and agile structures.

Writing and reading are much slower processes than active listening and can cut into valuable time for a business.

Build Trust in the Workplace.

With lesser need for written documentation, there is an added benefit in cognitive terms. In oral communication, humans tend to use all of their senses and thus, more can be communicated in a single message when compared to the written form, which relies on the visual sense alone. Also, there’s nothing like the give and take nature when two or more people communicate face to face.

Practicing listening the right way creates trust in workplace culture like no other act does.

Listening also builds trust because it will allow for upward communication more often. In my experience with organizations, downward messages are cascaded at will from top management.

However, not many leaders create avenues for messages to move up from what is happening on the ground. Even if messages do get to the top, they are never in their original form.

Increase Your Sales Revenue. 

You got that right. Over my twenty-year consulting career, the most dramatic shift I’ve noticed is in sales techniques across varied industries.

Aggressive selling is not the norm anymore as customers are tired of endless telemarketing and false advertising. Low pressure forms of salesmanship have been gaining momentum over the last decade, in response to customers wanting to feel safe and cared for with products and services.

Customers want somebody to listen to their concerns and this is where the best sales professionals have excelled.

Even if customers do not buy at this time, they won’t forget an empathetic salesperson and the brand is elevated until they are ready to buy in future. And if a professional who is a great listener moves to a new company, there’s no telling where customers will go and who they’ll follow.

If workplaces can institute effective listening practices, think of what changes could occur for businesses. How much time and cost would be saved? What kind of effort can be cut down? What will trust look like? How would leaders appraise the performance of their best talent and retain them?

Small effects build over time. Great workplaces are built with a strong culture of trust at their core, which shields against the rampant epidemic of a disengaged workforce. If not for any other reason, think about the bonding real listening creates in every interaction between a business and its customers.