Welcome to the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast Reverb, a conversation that digs deeper into this

month's podcast topic, all designed to help leaders go even further faster.

I'm your host, Susie Gray.

Indy last week, we discussed why the best leaders never stop learning and how staying curious

keeps leaders relevant and innovative.

Today, we want to take that idea further by focusing on something that can open a door to learning, which is listening.

Why is listening such a critical discipline for leaders, and how does it connect to the idea of continuous learning and curiosity?

Yeah, well, that's a big question.

All your questions are big questions, Susie. Yeah. And to back up a little bit, listening isn't just a discipline. It's actually the foundation of learning, right? I mean, what and who you listen to will determine what you know and what you do, right? I know it rhymes, but this is something I say, what and I tell our kids this, what and who you listen to will determine what you know and ultimately what you do.

And as leaders, we're surrounded by so much noise, news, opinions, competing priorities,

and maybe often most damaging of all our own assumptions. That's just part of the noise.

So if we're not intentional about listening, we risk only hearing what's loudest and what appears to be most

urgent, not necessarily what's most important. And again, connecting the dots, if I can jump back

a little bit, connecting the dots to last week's episode, listening communicates curiosity

and humility, right?

Yeah.

Listening is acknowledging that you don't know everything, that you don't assume you're the

smartest person in the room.

And so in that way, listening has the potential to shape the culture of an organization

or whatever it is that we're leading.

So if the leader is still learning, which means the

leader is still listening, everybody else loses their excuse not to follow suit. So if you want to

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