ABSTRACT
Skill in effective dialogue or conversation is crucial to effective leadership. The leaders had multiple conversations every day, and each conversation can feel very different, but they can't always work out why. Learning to have effective conversations is learning to gradually give up the effort of making others understand us, and learning how to develop a shared understanding. As leaders, we sometimes feel they are expected to be the people with the right answers, so approaching a conversation with a genuinely open mind can be challenging. Stephen Covey explores dialogue in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, with the habit 'Seek first to understand, then be understood'. Most conversations, especially group conversations, such as those that take place at practice meetings, contain a mix of these preferences.
