One Tongue, Two Ears
“Imagine you lead a team and you can choose one person from your circle of colleagues to join,” I ask the group of young scientists attending my leadership training. “You would probably choose someone who not only does their own work well but also catalyses good work around them. How would you describe this person’s work and communication style?” After a reflection phase, we gather the characteristics of these communication superstars. The result: What’s desired is not a dominant know-it-all, but an empathetic, focused, and highly interested person. This aligns with the findings of a study that describes this type of communication as “energised but focused listening.”
Good listening is about more than signals like nodding and eye contact. We need to show genuine interest and try to perceive the other person as completely as possible.
It’s about listening as a core skill in the application process, in team contexts, or wherever communication is relevant. The Greek philosopher Epictetus teaches us: “Nature gave man one tongue and two ears so that we might hear twice as much from others as we speak.” In the age of social media, where more information is sent than received, this proverb is more relevant than ever.
Good listening skills can be learned. In the workshop, we’ll practice the “mirror voice” exercise: Two participants discuss a trivial topic, such as their favorite cities or the best breakfast. Once one participant has finished speaking, their partner must repeat their last sentence verbatim. Normally, our brains process information in our own words, but in this exercise, listening is artificially made more difficult, forcing us to absorb every word. This is challenging in dialogue situations because we not only have to listen but also think about our response.
Good listening is about more than signals like nodding and eye contact. We need to show genuine interest and try to perceive the other person as completely as possible. An extra step can ensure we’ve understood the other person well: We paraphrase their statement and explicitly ask if we’re correct. This can be done on a factual level, but it can also address the emotional level if appropriate to the conversation. This transforms simple listening into active listening, allowing information to flow in both directions. With this core skill, we all become a little more like the communication superstars we admire so much.
This article was first published in Nachrichten aus der Chemie (issue 07-2026). See here the German original.
Listening is a core skill for any professional and for leaders in team contexts. A lack of listening skills often leads to conflicts. If you’re interested in learning more about listening and resolving the conflicts that result from a lack thereof, you might want to explore our workshop Conflict management.