The Two-Word Question That Makes Leaders Better Listeners
Things worth taking away
- Hearing is passive; listening is a skill leaders have to build on purpose.
- The habit that gets in the way: relating people's stories back to your own instead of staying with theirs.
- "What else?" invites more without adding your opinion — and pushes past the first, top-of-mind answer.
- Silence — even three minutes of it — surfaces reflection that rapid-fire conversation never reaches.
- Ask "What do you already know about this?" before giving advice; it builds trust and reveals capability.
About this episode
Most leaders assume they are good listeners because they can hear. Listening asks much more of us.
In this episode of The Connection Experiment, Nathalie sits down with Kelly Wood, a Coach Academy faculty member, to challenge what we think we know about listening. These two self-described “coach nerds” explore what it means to stay present, invite silence, and resist the urge to relate everything back to our own experience — the discipline of letting go of what you want to say next, and the discomfort of recognizing how rarely we truly listen.
Kelly and Nathalie also share simple experiments you can try immediately to change the conversations you have at work, at home and everywhere in between. If you lead people and have never asked “What do you already know about this?” before jumping in with advice, this episode may change the way you lead.
Connect with Kelly Wood on LinkedIn.
Ready to build listening skills like this into your own leadership? Learn more at Canada Coach Academy.
Jump to a moment
- 00:01Intro: Kelly Wood, Coach Academy's lead facilitator
- 01:44How does coaching make you a better leader?
- 03:32Hearing vs. true listening
- 07:15What gets in the way: relating others' stories back to your own
- 14:34The two-word question that unlocks deeper thinking: "what else?"
- 18:49Why silence is so hard, and the 3-minute silence exercise
- 31:10The neuroscience of trust and the bottom line
- 39:44Ask "what do you already know?" instead of telling
- 47:33Reading non-verbal cues in a conversation
- 54:18Closing challenge: pick one question to try this week
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