Listen to Your Teammates

We put so much effort into trying to make our boss happy that we overlook a key ingredient to our individual success in a company: Listening to your teammates. Want to really shine in your organization? Then learn this skill to stand out from the crowd. Listening to your teammates builds confidence with your coworker because when she sees you're listening she's more likely to encourage you to succeed in return. Surprisingly, really listening to others makes your own voice heard. Coworkers who know you're listening to their ideas are more likely to reciprocate by promoting your ideas when the time comes. Being a good listener makes you less reactionary. Taking time to listen slows you up from quickly blurting out ideas and reflection is a good way to refine your thinking— or from putting your foot in your mouth! The best thing about listening to your team members is how quickly it facilitates collaboration. There's nothing quite like riffing off each others ideas to get those creative juices flowing. At ZURB, we see great things happening as a result of collaboration. That can only happen when team members are fully invested in each other's ideas— even if it means the occasional disagreement over the "right"' way to do something.