Being a good listener is more than just lending an ear every once in a while. If you do it well, with intention and often, you can contribute to your future success.
Some high-profile corporate leaders, including Loews CEO Marvin Ellison, YouTube CEO Neil Mohan, and billionaire businessman Barry Diller, former president of Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox, have reached new levels of success by listening, the three said in an interview on CNBC’s “Leaders’ Playbook” series in January.
They each said that by proactively incorporating what they heard from staff, consumers, and their own intuition, they were able to solve problems and gain a competitive advantage.
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Alison Wood Brooks, an associate professor at Harvard University and author of the 2025 book “Talk: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Yourself,” says listening to people’s opinions makes you more persuasive. By remembering what people say and asking thoughtful questions, she says, you can build trust and genuine relationships, and gain influence when you need to unite a team toward a specific goal.
Here, three CEOs detail how different types of listening helped them move forward.
listen to your team
Before taking on the home improvement store leadership team in 2018, Lowe’s CEO Ellison spent 30 days visiting multiple locations at the chain, collaborating with employees, listening to their insights, and learning the local landscape.
Ellison worked at the pro desk, where experts helped professional contractors and vendors unload trucks and learned about pricing and placement on the sales floor. He said he prioritized gaining first-hand knowledge about employees’ daily experiences, including what worked and what didn’t.
“I was doing all these random things. I was taking notes. I was having lunch with co-workers,” Ellison said. Employees Even after seven years with the company, he said he still makes time to speak directly with store associates and listen to their feedback.
Ellison said that in the C-suite, he sees a lot of “flashy presentations” about what’s going on inside the company. But he added that by talking directly to customers and employees, he can really understand it, which strengthens his connection with them.
“The title (CEO) can be intimidating, but people are people, and after five minutes of conversation, they can relax and be themselves,” Ellison said.
hear great ideas
Diller, chairman and senior executive at IAC and Expedia Group, spoke about the value of listening while brainstorming with others, especially when looking for breakthrough ideas.
The billionaire executive enjoys “creative conflict” group brainstorming sessions, where team members passionately discuss their ideas and ponder them until a decision is reached. Diller said such sessions can be “loud and argumentative and a little brutal,” but “I think they’re a great environment” to think about ideas.
To listen effectively during creative conflict sessions, Diller says, you need to “enforce innocence.” “If you’re cynical about other people’s ideas, you can’t actively listen to new perspectives.” And you can’t rely solely on your intuition to understand great ideas, he added.
“You don’t listen and wait for that one thing to ring in your head. It’s a process. As you listen, you hear things that make sense to you, this or that,” Diller said. “And at some point in this process, you’re convinced because you were able to listen, listen and weigh it against your instincts…I think that’s a good process.”
listen to the audience
Mohan joined YouTube in 2015 as Chief Product Officer and became CEO in 2023. His leadership is a superpower, and he regularly solicits feedback from creators, many of whom use and interact with his platform on a regular basis.
“I always tell our product teams here: If you really want to fundamentally understand how a product works, talk to the creators,” Mohan said. “They will give us feedback at a very detailed level.”
Mohan himself said he has personal relationships with some of these video creators and personally asks their opinions on “little things like thumbnail selection techniques.” He said he likes to solicit input on potential features and “less-developed ideas to get early feedback.”
“The entrepreneurial spirit that comes from creators really permeates the culture at YouTube,” Mohan says. He said YouTube staff can bounce ideas and constructive criticism at various levels within the company.
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