Poor Listening and Communication Habits: When leaders hear but don’t listen, speak but don’t connect. This includes not listening, condescension, arguing instead of seeking to understand others’ perspectives, and failing to ask appreciative inquiry questions.
As a Scotsman, I am especially fond of William Shakespeare’s 1602 play, Macbeth. Macbeth is a Scottish general and nobleman whose ambition leads to a tragic downfall. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a loyal and brave warrior, praised for his courage in battle. After a victorious campaign, he encounters three witches who prophesy that he will become King of Scotland. Driven by this prophecy and encouraged by his ambitious wife, Lady Macbeth, he murders King Duncan and claims the throne.
However, Macbeth’s conscience is troubled by guilt and paranoia, leading him to commit more murders to secure his power. The witches later give him cryptic new prophecies, warning him to beware Macduff, a noble Scottish lord and fierce patriot aiming to overthrow Macbeth’s tyranny and seek justice for his family’s murders. They also state he cannot be killed by any man “born of a woman” and will remain safe until Birnam Wood moves to Dunsinane.
Macbeth misreads these warnings as signs of invincibility and dismisses further advice. In the end, these prophecies are fulfilled in unexpected ways. King Duncan’s son, Malcolm, leads his soldiers to attack Macbeth’s stronghold at Dunsinane. He instructs each soldier to cut a branch from Birnam Wood and carry it in front of him to hide the army’s numbers. Ultimately, Macduff, born via Caesarean section, kills Macbeth during the attack. Macbeth’s failure to fully understand the witches’ warnings, along with his unchecked ambition, results in his death and the fall of his legacy. His story is a classic tale of pride, fate, and tragic blindness.
Macbeth was first performed before King James I (yes, the same King James of KJV Bible fame), the Scottish king who had recently been crowned King of England after the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. Interestingly, King James shared many similar characteristics with Macbeth, including a fascination with witchcraft, a shared lineage, and a connection to regicide (the Gunpowder Plot of 1605). Whether Shakespeare was sending a political message to the king, Macbeth certainly presents a strongly crafted leadership lesson on the folly of not listening well.
This is the first of the Big 10 Culture Killers of Effective Leadership Teams. I call it The Soundproof Room.
In a soundproof room, we are insulated from the voices of others: their concerns and experiences, how they are impacted (especially negatively) by our leadership choices. There in our echo chamber, we only listen to our ideas and opinions, or those of others who agree with us. We are safe from any disparaging perspectives that may threaten our understanding of the world or our ability to make sense of what is happening in our leadership context. We often only hear what we want to hear.
Miles’ Law (attributed to Rufus Miles, Jr., a U.S. government official in the 1950s and 1960s) states, “Where you stand depends on where you sit.” In other words, our perspective, opinions, or decisions are often shaped by our position, role, or personal interests in organizational or political contexts. When we encounter contradictory thoughts, we frequently become defensive, argumentative, overly opinionated, condescending, and close-minded. We sideline or cancel others, excluding them from the leadership table, and discount or discredit their concerns. But these attitudes and behaviors are detrimental to the health and effectiveness of leadership teams. They are essentially anti-cultural forces that dispel a leadership team’s ability to make sense of their environment and respond adaptively with new norms that propel its mission. When we silence others who see things differently, we disempower and dehumanize them, and we rob ourselves of the opportunity to learn and grow.
The book of Proverbs states, “The first to state his case seems right, until his opponent begins to cross-examine him” (Proverbs 18:17 NET). Macbeth ignored all further advice and counsel that didn’t match his interpretation of the prophecies. He stayed in his soundproof room because it helped him navigate his world comfortably, even when his “truth” led to his downfall.
Indeed, it is deeply disorienting and uncomfortable when our worldviews are challenged by new information. We tend to defend what we know because it forms the foundation of how we have lived and acted.
Thomas Kuhn, an American physicist and philosopher of science, wrote his influential book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, to challenge the traditional, linear view of scientific progress. He argued that science does not advance through a steady accumulation of facts, but instead through a series of disruptive shifts in understanding, known as paradigm shifts. According to Kuhn, normal science works within an accepted framework, or paradigm, where scientists solve puzzles and refine theories. Over time, however, anomalies that don’t fit the current paradigm begin to pile up. When the accepted paradigms can no longer support the weight of these anomalies, the scientific community enters a period of crisis. Eventually, a scientific revolution occurs, replacing the old paradigm with a new one that better explains the data. This new paradigm redefines what questions matter, how experiments are interpreted, and even what counts as legitimate evidence. Kuhn emphasizes that these shifts are not purely logical or objective; they also involve subjective and sociological factors, including resistance to change and generational turnover.
Kuhn’s book remains a cornerstone for understanding how knowledge develops. We need disruption to deepen our understanding. We must be shaken from our complacency and awakened by unsettling new evidence. We need to break down soundproof barriers. This is the only way for leadership teams to foster healthy cultures that support mission progress and make a lasting impact. Otherwise, we are just shooting in the dark.
What, then, is the remedy for The Soundproof Room? I believe the antidote to leadership hubris and short-sightedness is appreciative inquiry. Appreciative inquiry is an organizational development approach that suggests organizations grow in the direction of the questions they ask. If we only rely on our gut-level knowledge based on familiar paradigms, we will not advance. This is the person who does the same thing repeatedly but expects different outcomes. Instead, we must position ourselves with an open mind to receive new information, no matter how unsettling or uncomfortable it may be. We adopt an attitude of hospitality, welcoming the disorienting perspectives and information others give us as gifts to be embraced, helping us lead with wisdom.
Appreciative inquiry begins with the mindset that God is already at work in the team members with whom we serve, even before we arrive. Instead of rushing in with our presumptions, we adopt a humble and teachable attitude that asks, “What is God doing in our team and mission, and how can we join him?” We value others’ strengths and recognize the contributions they make to the team. We appreciate that they bear the image of God and therefore bring a unique range of talents, skills, and experiences that are essential to carrying out our mission. We also understand that they perceive things from the seats in which they sit, perspectives we need to discern well in our work together.
When we start with appreciation instead of judgment or a “know-it-all” attitude or condescension, we are more likely to approach with curiosity, listen carefully, and engage positively by asking questions. New possibilities will open when everyone feels welcome to share their perspectives in a mutually supportive way that deepens understanding and enables transformational leadership.
Here are ten appreciative inquiry questions you can add to your toolkit to use when someone on your team shares challenging perspectives or concerns. These will help you value their input and encourage conversations that lead the team to a better understanding of their environment and mission.
Welcoming Disruption with Curiosity
- What’s most important to you in bringing this forward, and what do you hope we’ll understand better?
- What does this situation reveal about our current assumptions or practices?
- Can you share a moment when you became aware of this issue, and what it meant to you?
Exploring Strengths Within the Challenge
- What strengths or values of this team might help us respond well to this challenge?
- What’s already working, however small, that we can build on as we respond to this?
Expanding Possibility and Perspective
- What questions does this situation invite us to ask that we haven’t asked before?
- If this challenge shows us something we need to learn, what might that be?
- What future would become possible if we took this seriously and responded with integrity and creativity?
Building Shared Ownership
- What conversations do we need to have, now or in the future, to grow together from this experience?
- How might we use this moment to deepen trust, sharpen clarity, or strengthen our culture?
