Some years ago, I had one of those great learning opportunities that come to us as people, professionals, etc. I do a lot of coaching, personally and professionally. While working with someone, let's call her Terry, who no matter how I approached her, she would get injured and it didn't seem to matter how I tried to manage it or deal with it or communicate it.

So I was talking with my mentor one day, and Sam said, “Well Ron, why don't you just listen to her?” Just listen? No coach says “just listen” for 90 minutes. Needless to say, I decided to play along. Terry and I went out dinner. For 90 minutes, I just listened. I just listened. I was empathetic, kind, appropriate, all those things. When we got to the end of dinner, Terry threw her arms around my shoulders, kissed me on the cheek and said, that it was the best coaching session ever.

What a humbling moment, realizing that me trying to coach was the impediment to her getting what she needed. It may also conclude that maybe sometimes just listening really is the best value we can offer. I realized that's a little harder for those of us who think with our egos that we have important things to contribute.

What Terry taught me in that moment, is that sometimes my best work is just listening in an appropriate way. That's a really cool idea that you can experiment with. It might benefit you in the same way it has benefited me