Listen In

We often don’t give space and energy to  listen to what is not being said and instead focus on what we hear, our expectations and what we have “practiced” without paying attention to others or the space in between. This can cause a lot of misunderstandings and performance is often lowered. What if you could pave a way for beautiful moments of collaboration to happen where you can perform your best BECAUSE you are in tune with others and the moment, adapting to what is best for the group (and the audience)? Grammy winning and musician extraordinaire Terreon Gully is one of the most influential artists of his generation. Tune into this episode as we take listening to a level you may not have considered before. We hope to erase all expectations and start from zero, unveiling unexpected outcomes on how huge listening impacts others. Parallels are made from music, to collaboration,  leadership and life-death decision-making.   Widely recognized for his creativity, versatility, and authenticity, Terreon has mastere

What does it mean to truly listen in a way that has enormous impact, also in the business world?  When we commit to truly listening to someone, we open doors for quality connections that can lead to transformation and relationship satisfaction. It's through listening that we can build bridges of understanding, empathy, and trust that allow us to connect with people on a deeper level. This, in turn, positively impacts organizational outcomes. In today's episode, we have a special guest, my good friend and mentor,  Dr. Avi Kluger, who is a renowned expert in the field of listening and a great listener.  Dr. Avi Kluger is a professor of organizational behavior at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his area of research focuses on the dangers of feedback and the benefits of listening in relationships and at work.  Avi has published numerous studies on the topic of listening in leading publications, including a meta-analysis on the power of listening at work. He was the Director of the Executive MBA program

Have you ever thought about how listening develops in children and how this connects with listening in leadership development? You might be surprised by what you discover from our guest today.  Marva Shand-McIntosh  founded the I Love to Listen Day in 2005, and it's still going strong. This day is celebrated every year on May 16th. She is a licensed and certified speech-language pathologist as well as an international communication consultant who trains executive leaders, educators, youth leaders and parents in successful listening practices. As a Certified Listening Professional, Marva has presented papers at international and national conferences. She also serves as a guest lecturer on listening at various university campuses, in churches and the community. Her professional activities include memberships in the ILA and the American Speech-Language Association. I hope you are inspired with Marva just like I am in finding ways to raise the awareness of listening and inspiring communities and families on how t

When it comes to Diversity and Inclusion, one hidden bias continues to hold businesses back: linguistic bias. This hidden bias affects much more than just non-offensive language, influencing the way we judge people from the moment they open their mouths. Where do these biases come from? How do they hinder hiring and promotion decisions? How can businesses make sure their preference for eloquent speakers in leadership doesn't create barriers for certain groups? This eye-opening talk delves deep into the issue of linguistic bias and its impact on businesses, providing insight into how this bias can be addressed and mitigated. By the end, you'll be speaking and listening to everyone around you in a whole new way. Heather Hansen helps top global professionals show up, speak up, and inspire action in a changing world. She is on a mission to empower global voices to contribute to conversations that matter – in business, politics, and life. Only through conscious, confident, and connected communication can we achiev

What are the triggers that make you boiling mad? Do you notice what happens to you and the voices in your head when you feel like someone doesn’t understand you or does something “against” you? Do you want people to see and appreciate you for who you really are?     And how do we authentically become fully aware of what we deeply want and need so that we can communicate this clearly?   Mette Johansson (MBA, CSP, PCC) is a highly awarded author, speaker, and consultant. She worked in leadership roles for multinational corporations for 15 years before founding MetaMind, a training consultancy providing consulting and learning programs in the people side of leadership skills. She is the author of three Amazon bestsellers; "How to Make Yourself Promotable", "7 Skills to Help You Climb the Career Ladder", "MyVoice", as well as the co-author and ideator of “Unleash Your Voice", "Powerful Public Speaking for Every Woman”.   Mette is also the founder and relentless driver of the non-profit KeyNote – Women Speakers’ d

As Raquel traveled back to Germany from visiting her family, she brought along stories that spoke volumes of her purpose in life – practicing and being surprised by our listening superpower. Reflecting on a routine she had while traveling as a younger person, she took time to look at the window from a cloud perspective and truly listen to what 2023 wanted to tell her.    With an open heart and mind to the possibilities of what 2023 has in store for her, she was surprised at an immense sense of gratitude. And she shares this with us on this episode.   True to her passion, she is continuing to advocate for more listening to take place - listening to ourselves, to others, and engaging others to listen to us.   In this episode, Raquel returns to the often-repeated question, “How do I get people to listen to me?” She offers us more practical tips on how to be a channel for people to lean in and listen to us and for us to listen more to ourselves.   “High-quality listening is when we listen with no judgment. And in

On the shortest day of the year, known as the Winter Solstice, Raquel takes a moment to reflect on 2022. What brought you light this year? As the days start to get longer and extend, what would you like to extend further from 2022 into 2023?  And as we take the opportunity to reflect on the year,  how can we continue to raise the opportunities for more listening, whether we are listening to ourselves, others or even helping people listen to us. In this episode, Raquel was  inspired to answer the most frequently asked question she was asked this year:  ‘How do I get people to listen to me?’  Listen in as Raquel shares actionable tips to help you become a better listening facilitator to ensure that you are also listened to, and experienced by the people around you. “When you want someone to listen to you, the best thing you can do is start by listening to them first. ‘- Raquel Ark Topics Covered   01:11 - What’s unique with Winter Solstice: the shortest day of the year. It’s a great day to take time to reflec

Have you noticed how your co-workers or team seem to have difficulty listening well to each other, having different understandings of what is important? Do you want to know how you can help a group listen to what is actually emerging in discussions?   Visualize it.   In today’s episode, our guest talks about how listening is a way for you to recognize something bigger inside yourself and the group. Visualizing while listening is something you can do to help fully grasp what is being said and what is emerging in the group.   Listening is an art where you can visualize it and see its beauty.   So how do you do this?   Visual Facilitator, Vanessa Jane Smith is from New Zealand with a background in communications, organizational development, training, and coaching. She blends leadership coaching & visual facilitation creating an approach which creatively disrupts routine thinking, inspiring human potential development. She works with groups to generate new ideas, stories and approaches, aligning diverse inter

Have you ever thought you would not be an effective leader just because you are a naturally quiet person? Or are you only recruiting leaders who are outspoken and seem confident? We have long been stuck in a narrow and outdated view of what good leadership looks, sounds, and feels like. Often we assume there's a correlation between confidence and competence. We have disregarded quiet people’s great potential to be of positive impact just because we think they’re too shy to lead the change. This is a myth. According to our guest in episode 53,  listening is a leadership responsibility. And quietly powerful leaders use their quiet superpower towards better decision-making, more empowered and engaged teams, and high-quality outcomes.   Listen to your listening SUPERPOWER podcast to understand why and how to tap into this potential.     Megumi Miki is an author, speaker, and consultant in leadership and culture, with a background in strategy, economics, and finance. Through her book “Quietly Powerful: How Your Qu

Achieving optimal results for ourselves and the organization requires engaging in authentic conversations. This involves listening that is not driven by fear, but by maximizing curiosity. And listening by curiosity motivates change, especially when it comes to receiving and processing feedback.   Best-selling author, executive coach, and keynote speaker Dr. Craig Dowden is bridging the gap between what science knows and what leaders do. In his work, he integrates evidence-based principles from the fields of positive psychology with those in leadership and organizational excellence.   In this episode, Craig discusses how authentic conversations can take place to achieve success in business. And how great leadership starts with self-leadership. While listening with curiosity, not only does this help us to understand people's inner worlds, we also learn so much about ourselves. He also shares powerful tips on receiving and processing feedback. "It's more vital than ever before to create space for listening. It

In a noisy world with so many distractions pulling us in different directions, it is easy to get lost and not make sense of what people are trying to communicate. This is true for both the person listening and the one being listened to. Listening with purposeful intention and saying the most important things first helps communication be clear and concise, having more impact. Joe McCormack is on a mission to help organizations master lean communication. In an age of shrinking attention spans, non-stop interruptions, and floods of information our messages are getting lost in a sea of words.   An experienced marketing executive, successful entrepreneur, and author, Joe is recognized for his work in narrative messaging and strategic communications. His book, “BRIEF: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less” (Wiley, 2014) tackles the timeliness of the “less is more” mandate. Because even expert communication can be thwarted by an audience that has lost the capacity to pay attention, he follows up with a pragmatic guide

Listen in podcast has reached a milestone, and we're celebrating!    You're in for a treat, of course. You’ve heard Raquel mention her son, Luke, often in the interviews.  How about Luke interviewing his mother, Raquel, for a change?    The tables are turned, and Raquel becomes the interviewee.   Get an inside look at Raquel's journey into podcasting. She candidly answers her son's (Luke) questions, revealing the reasons why she decided to start a podcast, the change it made in her, and the realizations it led her guests to, even when they are experts in their fields. And what it has brought to her listeners' lives.   Also, we get to see what a kind-hearted and friendly-natured human she is, striking up warm conversations with strangers wherever she goes as if it’s second nature to her.   As part of this 50th episode, Raquel also shares a few changes to the show's format you can expect moving forward.   Join the fun and enjoy  a lighthearted mother-son banter unveiling this warmhearted, playful mother-son dyn

Hello everyone. My name is Raquel Ark.  I am the host of the Listen in with Raquel Ark podcast, and this podcast has been around, I can't believe it, for over three years, and I'm coming up to the 50th podcast. Started as a hobby and has turned into a passion.  Originally, when I started the podcast, I was having amazing conversations with authors, leaders, with scientists about listening because I was trying to discover the superpower of listening, and I thought if I could bring this conversation and record it and share it with others these things that I'm learning, Maybe that will help catalyze this listing movement that so many of us are trying to support. So the name came through a little collaboration I had with a girlfriend of mine over a cup of coffee where she's like, ‘Oh, how about listen in.’ Listen in is about listening in to a conversation. It's about. Listening in that self-reflection where you go inward and reflect on what you're discovering, but it's also about listing, and that's how we came u

How can we listen well when we have limited time and high demands? This is an important question across all types of organizations.  And especially in the medical environment, have a potential life and death answer. The ability of health providers to listen is key to enhancing the patient experience and giving quality health care.   Dr.  Krishna Naineni (Nigh- Nay- Knee) is a General Practitioner (GP) in the southeast of England. He is a Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners and a faculty at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. He is a passionate medical educator with interest in listening-centered clinical communication.  Currently, he is serving as a Chair of International Listening Association's Healthcare team. As a Certified ECHO Listening Practitioner, Krishna is encouraging healthcare professionals to establish intelligent listening units in their respective workplaces.  He is a co-founder of Glocal Academy which has been instrumental in delivering custom-made listening-centered clinical

How can listening to yourself be an ultimate superpower to live the life you want? Robbie Swale is a leadership coach, author, and podcaster, whose work focuses on creativity, coaching, and leading with honor. His time is split between his coaching business, writing, and various associate work. He supports coaches to grow their businesses and impact and thrive as people, via a community for coaches and a podcast. An ability to see things differently, understand different perspectives and see the truth in the world without the fear to do or say the right thing is the reason why coaches choose to collaborate with him.   In this episode, Robbie shares his journey on how he developed the 12-minute method while discovering how listening can be used as a superpower when it comes to truly live the life we really want. He also shares about the struggles and resistance he has overcome to be able to make an impact through his writing and how this helps him fuel his creative impulses.    Robbie also emphasizes the impor

How can you get more value through team collaboration and understanding what your customer really needs?   Teresa Torres is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and coach who helps teams gain valuable insights from their customer interviews, run effective product experiments, and drive product outcomes that create value for their customers and their businesses. She teaches teams how to connect the dots between their research activities and their product decisions, inspiring confidence that they are on the right track.    In this episode, Teresa shares her experience about how listening is filtered by what we hear based on our past experience and knowledge. If you are working on a team to listen to customer needs, it’s only natural that we have different perceptions of what happened in a customer interview. Instead of discussing who is right and who is wrong, what if everyone saw one piece of the puzzle. Instead, how can we listen to and synthesize information in a structured way to create products th

High-quality listening has a lot of power to impact challenging conversations, engagement, and burnout. And we are only at the beginning of learning about the potential of listening and what is possible. In this episode, we dive into current research and open questions.   Guy Itzchakov, an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Services at University of Haifa, shares what he is discovering empirically about listening.  His research focuses on high quality listening as an avenue for growth at  individual and organizational levels. He also studies attitude ambivalence, attitude-behavior relationships, and goal setting. Guy graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy - PhD focused in General Business Administration and Management from The Hebrew University.    In this episode, Guy shares how cultivating a climate of listening and genuinely getting interested in other people helps motivation, engagement, provides higher psychological safety that help avoid emotional exhaustion, and lowers turnover in an organiz

Often we don't notice it, but as leaders taking on varied roles in one's personal and professional life, we find ourselves hearing and not listening.  When we truly dial into our listening intelligence, that's when it strengthens connections and improves relationships that reinforce the human capacity for positive societal change. Ebele Chukwujama is a Chief Executive with 22 years of progressive experience in Banking, Consulting, and Human Development. Amongst her numerous leadership positions, she was the Division Lead – Aviation Group within the Corporate Banking Division of Zenith Bank Plc. She is the Chief Executive Officer of Aloeglobal Lifestyle and Wellness Services and also Chief Executive Officer of Poise Nigeria Limited, Nigeria's Premier Personality Branding, and Communication Company. She is a certified coach with Olusola Lanre Coaching Academy, a member of the John Maxwell Team, and the founder of The Listening School, the very first in Africa. The Listening School is a disruptive start-up on a

Everyone has the capacity to make a difference on the social challenges that face us every day. Helping financially is one way, yet there are so many other ways we can have social impact.  Building relationships in our communities where all voices are heard and considered in a foundation building block to create a collective effort which can bring forth massive change. And sometimes, as leaders, we try out “great” solutions to people's problems, yet are surprised they don't work. Maybe this is because we fail to listen first to the very people who are impacted and who may already have the answers to the issues at hand.  In this episode, you will find out more about how giving people voice empowers significant transformational change in our communities, as a force for good.  Ramona Houston, Ph.D., PMP, has a multifaceted career as a scholar, educator, and community engagement strategist. Sought for her expertise, Ramona is widely recognized as a thought leader in African American/Latino relations. An American

How can we speak in a way that will drive people to easily listen and understand our message?  Learn the art of communication with us today, so you can be noticed, respected, and heard as you speak!  Susan Heaton-Wright is the founder of SuperStar Communicator, where she helps empower individuals and teams to be impactful, and communicate with confidence, clarity, credibility, and influence in all business conversations. She created the SuperStar Communicator™ methodology and has supported clients globally to be better-spoken communicators. Susan is a multi-award-winning business owner. She is the CEO of award-winning Viva Live Music, and is a former prize winning international opera singer. She has a podcast called SuperStar Communicator, and volunteers for Love without Borders, supporting refugees in Athens. In this episode, Susan shares the 5 areas one should consider in being an effective communicator. She explains how to be concise and make information easily digestible in conversations, even for time-pr