Listening is a gateway to voice. When I listen, I communicate that I am paying attention to you, hearing you seeing you, hear for you, seeking to understand you, making space for our relationship to grow. In the act of listening, we each have the opportunity to create the container for voice to emerge our own voice and others voices. Brené Brown, in her book Dare to Lead, defines the leader as anyone who takes responsibility for recognizing the potential in people and ideas, and has the courage to develop that potential. This is a lovely definition of leadership to reflect upon, and one that calls on me to turn towards the idea of choice and responsibility. How do I choose to recognize and develop potential or possibility in each moment? How do I take responsibility for listening more deeply or fully into what is unfolding around us, between us inside of you and inside of me, I know without a doubt that when I am not listening, I miss out on the opportunity to recognize potential and possibility and to turn to courage. I also trust that when I am listening, I am often able to lead simply because of the space I create between us. So for me, listening is what precedes and follows voice. It is the presence, energy and space from which voice emerges and subsides. There are many layers of listening in my experience that are worth outlining here. First, listening to and for self. This is about the ways that you listen to your body, emotions, thoughts, beliefs. When we are attuned to listening to ourselves, we are practicing reconnection to the place from which our self expression emerges and returns. Second, listening to and with others. This is about the ways you not only hear the words being communicated, but you seek to understand the experiences of others, notice what is not being said, pay attention to their energy, emotion and presence. This is also about the ways to listen together with other people for what is emerging and unfolding in your relationship and connection. Third, listening to and for the structures, systems and cultures around you. This is about the ways that you listen for how the group dynamics institutions and cultural norms are present in what is unfolding within you, others and your shared interactions. What are the assumptions and beliefs that have not been named or surface but are have been inherited from the ways that you've been shaped by the society around you. And fourth, listening to and for the whole mystery life itself. This is spiritual listening, a sense of connection and presence to what life calls you to. For some, this may be listening to a higher power. For others, it may be the perspective gained an equanimity or connection to the shared nature of living beings. So in some ways, this teaching on listening is complex. Who ever heard of so many ways of listening? Am I really supposed to engage in all these layers of listening at work? In other ways, this lesson is simple. Listen, listen to yourself. Listen to others. Listen to the systems that are shaping you. Listen to the energy and wisdom of all that is. Listen, listen, not because you have to, but because it is a gateway to trust knowing, understanding and voice, a gateway not only for you, but also for all those you meet.