Are you paying attention at the back?

How marvelous. You have just been promoted to a senior mangement role in your company. So, what are you going to do now? Carry on doing what you were doing before - well, they obviously liked it as they promoted you. Do what the person in the job before you was doing - that must have been OK because they got a good job somewhere else. Start afresh - can't do that as they know you and you are supposed to know a lot having been with the company for several years. They have set up a bit of an induction programme but is is really just form as you should know all of it already, shouldn't you?

How would it be if you went into that induction process ready to truly pay attention to what people were telling you? What, you are a good listener are you? Well, what else might you be thinking about while they are talking to you?

• What question to ask to make yourself look great;
• How you will do things differently in the future
• Everything you know and assume about them from your previous contact
• Guessing what they are going to say next so that you can finish their sentence and demonstrate how much in tune you are
• What is for lunch

So how much of your attention is left for what they are telling you and how interested are you in what they actually think.

What does giving someone attention mean? It means listening with palpable respect and fascination. It is much more than active listening, which for most of us means little more than nodding and making enough 'uh huh's. When you are listening to someone, much of what you are hearing is your effect on them. Given someone your full attention is in itself generative of good thinking - freeing them from what they ought to say, or think you want to hear or believe you want want to listen to.

What might you learn that would help you in your new role if you gave your colleagues your full attention?