Wilfred Bion […] said that “the purest form of listening” was to listen “without memory or desire.” In other words, most listeners are thinking about their own interests rather than the other person’s. Goulston elaborates: “When you are listening with memory, you’re trying to fit someone into one of your old agendas, and when you are listening with desire, you’re trying to fit them into a new agenda. In either case you are not listening to their agenda.”
A great leader will forget about themselves and what they want when listening to someone else. When you try to dig into what the other person feels is important, then you learn far more about them.
=> We call this the „Not-knowing position“ in our trainings.