The first time I heard of an executive going on a “listen and learn tour” was back in the early 1990’s when an incoming CEO was assigned to me to help build his orientation plan. He wanted to visit as many manufacturing plants, sales offices, logistics centers and functional areas of the company as he could before he took over the reins. I remember him saying to me, just tell the people that I will be there to “listen and learn”. Since that time, I have always encouraged new employees to take the same approach and listen and learn for as long as they can before they begin to “talk and teach”. In my experience, listening and learning first is a sure-fire success formula. If entering a new business or job and trying to prove that you know it all from day one, you are setting yourself up for serious organ rejection. But, listening shows you care and taking in what you learn and doing something with it shows that you can be a real learner and are open to new ideas, thoughts and ways of doing things. The term listen and learn was positively refreshed in my mind this past weekend when our Pastor spoke from John 6:45 when Jesus said, “As it is written in the Scriptures, ‘They will all be taught by God’. Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to Me.” Listen and learn; there it is as a way of living taught to us by Jesus. Today, think about how much listening and learning you are doing versus talking and teaching. Even if you have been in the same job for 20 years and you are the boss, there is still an opportunity to listen to employees you normally would not sit and talk to, or go out and listen to customers and learn what they have to say. We all can heed the lesson and listen and learn more than we did yesterday and more tomorrow than we will do today.

Reference: John 6:45 (New Living Testament)