Are You Listening - Or Just Waiting to Speak?

This blog explores how directors often mistake waiting to speak for listening. It provides practical techniques to improve focus, understanding, and boardroom effectiveness.

Countless times, I’ve sat at a board table listening to someone speak while quietly rehearsing what I was going to say next.

I wasn’t interrupting. I was waiting my turn. But I wasn’t really listening.

And if we’re honest, most of us have been there.

In the boardroom, we pride ourselves on being thoughtful contributors. We prepare carefully. We come ready with questions, insights, and perspectives. But in the process, something subtle often happens: listening becomes waiting to speak.

This isn’t a harmless habit. It has real consequences for how boards think and for the decisions they make. In this Savvy Director blog, we’ll explore some practical, meeting-specific ways to improve.

"Listening becomes waiting to speak.”

Listening in Board Meetings

At any given time, communication in the boardroom requires one speaker and multiple listeners. As directors, most of us know the value of listening and try to be good at it. But effective listening doesn’t just come naturally. With discipline and focus, it’s a skill that you can develop.

First of all, let’s acknowledge that it can be a challenge to apply effective listening skills in the boardroom. Even with the best of intentions, the environment seems to work against us.

Many aspects of the typical board meeting contribute to poor listening:

• Limited airtime. Crowded agendas create pressure to contribute early on.
• Competition for attention. Multiple directors all want to share their viewpoints.
• Cognitive overload. Complex issues demand quick comprehension.
• Expectations. Our desire to add value pushes us to think ahead.

Despite the challenges, many directors are great listeners. No doubt you’ve seen them in action. It’s not always easy to spot strong listening, but you can recognize it by observing how directors participate during the meeting:

• They build on previous comments rather than ignoring them.
• They reference earlier speakers.
• They ask follow-up questions instead of pivoting quickly.
• They stay visibly engaged and present throughout the discussion.

A Common Listening Trap

COMPOSING WHILE LISTENING
A common boardroom listening trap
Mentally rehearsing responses instead of focusing fully on the speaker.

Composing while listening is a habit that trips up even the most accomplished directors.

The fact is, we think faster than people speak. While someone is talking, our minds have plenty of extra capacity. In a board meeting, we might use that capacity to evaluate what’s being said, decide whether we agree, and prepare our own contribution.

As a result, while someone else is speaking, you’re thinking:

• I should raise that risk…
• I don’t agree with that…
• How can I say this succinctly?

It feels productive and efficient, and it helps you sound articulate when you do speak.

But the moment you start composing your response, you stop fully listening. You miss the nuances, shifts in tone, and signs of uncertainty in what’s being said. And you lose the opportunity to build on someone else’s idea.

"The moment you start composing your response, you stop fully listening.”

Staying Present

CAPTURE, DON’T COMPOSE
The discipline of staying present
Capture key words and return full attention to the speaker.

How can we break the habit of composing while listening? The best way is to replace it with another behaviour.

Shift your attention from composing in your head to jotting down a quick note. Don’t try to perfect your wording. Just capture a key word or a short phrase to anchor your thoughts. Then return your full attention to the speaker.

When it’s your turn to speak, glance at your notes and your point will come back to you. Don’t just insert a new comment. Connect what you say to the previous speaker or speakers with words such as, “Building on what was just said about customer behavior, I’m wondering if that changes how we think about the timeline…”

That kind of acknowledgement doesn’t just demonstrate that you were listening, it shows respect and builds trust.

Virtual Meeting Challenges

Virtual meetings don’t lower the bar for listening – they raise it. In a virtual meeting, there are more distractions and fewer visual cues, not to mention awkward pauses, interruptions, and people speaking over one another.

When you’re in a virtual meeting, it’s easy to stop listening without anyone actually noticing. So, if your attention drifts, reset. Ask yourself: “Could I accurately summarize the last two minutes?” If not, that’s your cue to refocus.

A few practical adjustments can help you stay engaged:

• Keep your camera on. It’s far too easy to be distracted when you’re off camera.
• Pretend you’re in the boardroom. Sit up straight and keep your facial expression open and engaged.
• Eliminate distractions. Close unrelated tabs, shut down unnecessary devices, and mute your mobile.
• Slow your entry into the conversation. Pause before speaking. Be mindful of cutting others off.
• Signal that you’re listening. Refer to speakers by name. Build explicitly on their previous comments.

"If your attention drifts, reset. Ask yourself: “Could I accurately summarize the last two minutes?”

Three Techniques for Boardroom Listening

LISTENING TECHNIQUES
Three ways to stay fully engaged
Apply perspective-taking, bird’s-eye view, or tuner-transmitter to improve focus.

Recent behavioral research points to a few simple techniques that can sharpen listening in group settings like board meetings. They’re especially helpful during management reports or presentations, helping you not just to hear what’s going on, but to gather meaning from what you hear. That way you can make a stronger contribution when you speak up.

If one of these methods appeals to you, try it out at your next board meeting. Hopefully, it helps you stay engaged and focused.

Technique One. Perspective-Taking

Perspective-taking means deliberately stepping into the speaker's shoes to view a situation from their angle.

This technique involves setting aside your own biases to understand the speaker’s feelings and thoughts without debating or evaluating their message. It requires you to suspend Judgment, read non-verbal cues, validate your understanding, and ask clarifying questions to uncover the speaker’s viewpoint, priorities, and emotions.

In a board meeting, perspective-taking means balancing emotional intelligence with fiduciary duty. Directors, management, and experts come to the table with a variety of backgrounds, motivations, and emotions – which can lead to conflicting priorities. Mentally putting yourself in their shoes helps you stay focused and deepens your understanding.

Perspective taking has the added benefit of cultivating empathy, fostering an inclusive and collaborative environment where everyone feels heard and valued.

Technique Two. The Bird’s-Eye View

The bird's-eye view, also known as top-down listening, visualizes a discussion from an external, zoomed-out perspective.

Focusing on broad overarching themes rather than getting bogged down in details helps reduce personal bias, avoid cognitive overload, and separate the noise from the core message.

In a board meeting, the technique keeps your focus where it should be – on strategy, people, finance, and risk – rather than operations. It involves stepping back and observing the discussion as a whole. Here’s how it works.

1.  Mentally sort the information into broad buckets, filtering out details and focusing on outcomes.
2.  Observe the group dynamics, noting objections that suggest underlying motivations.
3.  Check for how well the message aligns with strategy or policies.
4.  Build a summary or dashboard in your mind, making note of gaps, missing data, or unaddressed threats.

Technique Three. The Tuner-Transmitter

The tuner-transmitter involves imagining that you’re a radio receiver who will become a radio broadcaster tasked with explaining the information to someone else.

By assuming you’ll have to pass along the information, your brain naturally shifts into a more engaged state. You pay close attention to the structure of the message, avoiding distractions. Instead of just recording, your brain naturally organizes and simplifies information into bite-size pieces. The result is better retention and focus.

In a board meeting, the technique is a tool for strategic alignment and governance. Try out these steps.

1. Imagine your transmitter audience is a specific stakeholder group - such as owners, regulators, or employees – to whom you’ll need to explain your decision.
2. As the tuner, filter out the operational detail and tune your frequency to board oversight matters
3. When it’s your turn to speak, translate what you heard into key takeaways and insights.

A Leadership Act

LISTENING AS A GOVERNANCE LEVER
The board chair’s role in shaping discussion
Guide pace, integrate perspectives, and ensure all voices are heard.

Board chairs don’t just manage airtime, they shape how the board thinks by guiding the conversation. Great chairs leverage their listening skills to facilitate the sharing of everyone’s perspectives through actions such as:

• Slowing the pace to allow ideas to land.
• Allowing quiet space between speakers to absorb and reflect.
• Summarizing and integrating what they’ve heard.
• Drawing out quieter voices.
• Redirecting when discussion fragments.
• Checking for shared understanding.

In summary, better boardroom listening doesn’t just improve how meetings feel. It improves the quality of discussions and decisions, the depth of understanding, and the level of trust. With effective listening, board leaders can create an environment where directors and management feel heard, respected, and valued.

Your Takeaways

"The most influential directors aren’t the ones who speak first. They’re the ones who understand best.”

If you want to be a better boardroom listener, why not try one or two of the following strategies:

1. Choose a listening technique in advance. Pick one of the three methods discussed above (perspective-taking, bird’s-eye view, or tuner-transmitter) and use it intentionally.
2. Start out by keeping quiet. If you’re usually the first person to speak, wait until at least three others have spoken.
3. Show that you’re listening. Offer verbal and nonverbal cues to demonstrate your understanding and engagement. If you're not sure you understand what the speaker is saying, ask for clarification.
4. Build before you pivot. Before introducing your idea, acknowledge what has been said and connect it to your comment.

Resources

• Listening to Understand in the Boardroom. Sophie Pinkoski. Halford Consulting. April 2023.
• The Art of Effective Boardroom Listening. Boardsi. LinkedIn. June 2023.
• The Art of Listening: How to Improve Listening Skills in Meetings. Fruitful. LinkedIn. June 2023.
• Why Listen? How Listening Skills Can Improve Your Board. Grace McCarthy. Better Boards. November 2018.
• Effective Listening Techniques. Itamar Shatz. Effectiviology. June 2026.
• The Role of Active Listening in Successful Facilitation. Will Chambers. © 2026 Positive Impact.

Thank you.

Scott

Scott Baldwin is a certified corporate director (ICD.D) and co-founder of DirectorPrep.com – an online membership with practical tools and valuable insights designed for directors at every stage – from first appointment to board leader.

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