A Good Hard Listen • Finding The Words
About This Episode
The volume of one-way communication is ramping up everywhere we turn—our feeds, inboxes, meetings, and media. All that noise leads to an increased feeling of distraction but rarely an increased sense of connection or understanding.
All that noise affects our ability to listen to one another, too.
This short-form episode is part of the Finding The Words column, a series published every Wednesday that delivers a dose of communication insights directly to your inbox. If you like what you read, we hope you’ll subscribe to ensure you receive this each week.
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We talk a lot about leadership, but presence that's where the real work happens.
Hi, and thanks for joining us for this episode of the Mission Forward Podcast.
I'm your host and founder of Mission Partners, Carrie Fox, and I am glad to have you with us today. for this show.
While our long form interviews have wrapped for this season, we have two bonus weeks for you, featuring some reflections from my weekly column called Finding the Words.
If you like what you hear in this mini episode, I hope you'll pass it along.
And please drop us a review or give this show a five-star rating to help get this show in the ears of people who could benefit the most from it.
Now we'll be back soon with more long-form interviews, but today please enjoy this finding the words called a good hard listen.
Sitting at my desk recently while preparing for a meeting, I was overwhelmed by noise.
The phone, breaking news, emails demanding attention, texts and team messages all buzzing away.
Even the thoughts in my mind seemed louder than usual.
The volume of one-way communication is ramping up everywhere we turn.
Our feeds, inboxes, meetings, and media.
And all that noise, it leads to an increased feeling of distraction. but rarely an increased sense of connection or understanding.
All that noise affects our ability to listen to one another, too.
According to some June 2025 More in Common research, about 8 in 10 Americans think they are good listeners, but nearly a quarter of Americans avoid listening to people whose views they don't like.
While we say we like to listen, our actions often involve sorting through the noise for what we want to hear, rather than inviting curiosity.
I mean, who has time for curiosity when we can hardly hear ourselves think, right?
So this week, I went back to a conversation with science writer Lisa Crohn, who was on the Mission Forward podcast not too long ago.
And it was there when we talked about the equal importance of listening and being listened to, and why we need leaders today who can do both well.
As Lisa and I discussed, transparency, curiosity, and a willingness to listen carefully through the noise are the elements that build relationships and as a result build trust.
Simply put, nobody will work to listen through the noise until they feel heard.
And we can't fix what we refuse to hear.
For the past 20 years, I have been observing the traits of trusted messengers, and here are the four traits that they have in common, all of which link back to listening well.
Good leaders, like good listeners, are honest.
They are real and truthful even when there are hard messages to deliver and hard messages to hear.
Good leaders, like good listeners, are authentic.
They're not trying to be someone else.
They are present and willing to be in the tough stuff with their teams.
Good leaders, like good listeners, have integrity.
You believe what they say, and they are consistently true to their word.
And good leaders, like good listeners, display love.
They show genuine care for all people they come into contact with, those who agree with their ideas and those who oppose them too.
Listening is not the absence of action.
It's the presence of care.
It's what signals to another person you matter enough for me to actively quiet the noise so I can better understand you. you yes these are hard times for listening with noise coming at us from all directions But every community conflict, political standoff, and workplace breakdown can be traced, at least partly, to people feeling unseen or unheard.
Reducing that feeling requires leaders to listen the hardest, honestly, authentically, with love and integrity So, what if we made listening, not talking, our greatest act of leadership?
When we choose to listen, we will also choose to quiet the noise.
And that one simple act can begin to bridge divides, repair harm, and rehumanize the spaces we share.
Bottom line, listening is not a soft skill.
It's a trust skill.
And in a noisy world, a good hard listen might be our most radical form of hope.
