L - How Well Do You Listen?

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Quiz Questions

1.
L1. A team member comes to you with a concern about a project. Midway through their explanation, you realize you already know what the issue is and how to fix it. You:
- A.
  Let them finish, then paraphrase what you heard before sharing your thoughts.
- B.
  Gently redirect them to the solution once you have enough context.
- C.
  Share what you are thinking while they are still talking to save time.
- D.
  Ask a question to make sure you have the full picture before responding.
2.
L2. A colleague shares a perspective you strongly disagree with. Before responding, you:
- A.
  Restate their position in your own words to make sure you understood it correctly.
- B.
  Take a breath and remind yourself to stay calm before sharing your view.
- C.
  Ask one question to understand where they are coming from.
- D.
  Share your perspective and invite them to respond.
3.
L3. During a team meeting, you notice a team member has gone quiet after being talkative earlier. You:
- A.
  Check in with them privately after the meeting to see how they are doing.
- B.
  Make a mental note and watch to see if it continues before acting.
- C.
  Pause the meeting briefly to ask if they have anything to add.
- D.
  Address it in the moment by asking directly what shifted for them.
4.
L4. You and a peer are debriefing after a joint presentation. They seem distracted and give short answers. You:
- A.
  Ask if everything is okay and give them space to share what is on their mind
- B.
  Keep the debrief brief and follow up with them later when they seem more present
- C.
  Finish the debrief and assume they will bring it up if something is wrong
- D.
  Mention that they seem distracted and ask if they want to reschedule
5.
L5. After a significant conversation with a team member, your manager asks you what the person needed from you in that conversation. You:
- A.
  Can describe specifically what they needed and how you responded to it.
- B.
  Can recall the main topic but are less clear on what they specifically needed.
- C.
  Can share the general theme but realize you focused more on the content than the need.
- D.
  Can describe what was said but would want to follow up to confirm what they needed.
6.
L6. A team member begins crying during a difficult conversation about their performance. You:
- A.
  Pause completely, acknowledge what they are feeling, and give them space before continuing.
- B.
  Hand them a tissue and let them know it is okay to take a moment.
- C.
  Gently redirect the conversation to give them something constructive to focus on.
- D.
  Let them know the conversation can wait and check in on how they are doing first.
7.
L7. You are in a difficult conversation with your supervisor about your performance and you become visibly emotional. You:
- A.
  Pause, take a breath, and name what you are experiencing before continuing.
- B.
  Apologize for your reaction and try to move the conversation forward quickly.
- C.
  Ask for a moment to collect yourself before continuing.
- D.
  Push through the emotion and focus on what is being said.
8.
L8. After a difficult meeting with a lot of tension, a peer pulls you aside to share how they experienced it. You:
- A.
  Listen fully without defending the meeting or your role in it.
- B.
  Listen and then share your own perspective on what happened.
- C.
  Acknowledge their experience and ask what would have been more helpful.
- D.
  Thank them and let them know you will take it into account next time.
9.
L9. You are on a call with your supervisor while also monitoring an urgent email thread. They are sharing important feedback about a current project. You:
- A.
  Close the email and give the call your full attention.
- B.
  Keep one eye on the email but stay engaged in the conversation.
- C.
  Let them know you have something urgent and ask if you can talk in 10 minutes.
- D.
  Stay on the call but respond briefly to the most critical email.
10.
L10. Three weeks after a conversation where a colleague shared something personal about a challenge they were facing, you:
- A.
  Check in specifically about that challenge and reference what they shared.
- B.
  Ask generally how things are going and see if they bring it up.
- C.
  Wait for them to bring it up if it is still relevant to them.
- D.
  Make a note to follow up but have not gotten to it yet.

Quiz Outcomes

1.
L: The Deep Listener - Developing
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Your Listening Score: Developing(Note: Scroll to the bottom to continue to the O Assessment)What This Means: Listening is the foundation of every meaningful leadership conversation, and right now, yours is being built. A Developing score in Listening doesn't mean you don't care about what people say. It means the habits of full, sustained presence haven't yet become automatic. The good news: listening is one of the most developable skills in the LOVE framework, and the fact that you're here means you're already paying attention in a new way.Your Signature Strength You are at the beginning of one of the most powerful leadership journeys there is and your willingness to look honestly at how you listen is itself an act of courage.Your Strengths at This LevelYou are capable of genuine presence in conversations that matter most to you, the foundation is there.You are beginning to notice when you're not fully listening, which is the first real step toward change.Your awareness of this dimension is now activated; that shift alone will start to change your conversations.Your Growth EdgeYour attention may drift during conversations, especially when you already have a strong opinion or feel time pressure.You may respond to what you expect someone to say rather than what they actually said.The full emotional and intellectual content of what people share may not yet be fully landing.Practices to TryDaily: In one conversation today, put down everything, your phone, your mental to-do list, your response, and simply receive what the other person is saying before you speak. Just one conversation. Build from there.Daily: After a significant conversation, ask yourself: "What did they actually say? What did they mean? What did they need?" If the answers come easily, you listened. If they're fuzzy, that's your signal.Weekly: Ask one person you lead: "Do you feel heard when we talk?" Then, and this is the practice, just listen to the answer without defending yourself.
2.
L: The Deep Listener - Growing
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Your Listening Score: Growing(Note: Scroll to the bottom to continue to the O Assessment)What This Means: You are building real listening skills, and the people around you are starting to feel it. A Growing score in Listening means you show up with genuine presence in many conversations, and you're developing the ability to track both what people say and what they mean. This is meaningful progress. The next step is consistency, making the quality of listening you bring to your best conversations the standard for all of them.Your Signature Strength: You are the leader whose presence is becoming a place where people feel safe enough to say the thing they almost didn't say.Your Strengths at This LevelPeople generally feel heard in conversation with you; your presence is real and developing.You are tracking both content and emotional subtext with increasing regularity.You follow up on conversations in ways that show you were paying attention.Your listening is becoming a reliable part of how people experience your leadership.Your Growth EdgeYour listening quality may vary, excellent in some conversations, more surface-level in others.You may still be formulating your response while the other person is still speaking.The deepest layer, fully receiving someone's meaning, not just their words, is still developing.Practices to TryDaily: Before responding in any significant conversation, take one breath and ask: "Did I hear the whole thing or just the part I was waiting for?" Then respond to what you actually heard.Daily: Practice paraphrasing once per day: "What I'm hearing is..." then pause and let them confirm or correct. This one habit builds listening faster than almost anything else.Weekly: After your most important conversation of the week, write down three things: what they said, what they meant, and what they needed. The gap between your answers and reality is your growth edge.
3.
L: The Deep Listener - Strong
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Your Listening Score: Strong(Note: Scroll to the bottom to continue to the O Assessment)What This Means: You are a genuinely strong listener, and your team feels it. A Strong score in Listening means you bring consistent, real presence to your conversations. You track content and emotional subtext, you follow up in ways that show you were paying attention, and most of the people you lead feel heard when they talk with you. You are close to the Advanced threshold, and the development path from here is about depth, moving from reliably good to genuinely transformational.Your Signature Strength: You are the leader whose presence tells people the truth is safe here before you say a single word.Your Strengths at This LevelYour team consistently experiences you as someone who truly listens, and that trust is built on real behavior.You track both the content and the feeling of what people share with notable consistency.You follow up across conversations in ways that demonstrate listening is ongoing, not just in-the-moment.You create enough safety that people bring you their real thinking, not just their polished version.Your Growth EdgeThe leap from Strong to Advanced is about being visibly changed by what you hear, not just receiving it well.You may still filter what you hear through your existing frameworks rather than letting it genuinely reshape your thinking.The subtler signals, what people almost say, what they hold back, what they carry beneath the words, may not yet register consistently.Practices to TryDaily: After an important conversation, ask: "What did I hear that I didn't expect? What changed for me because of this conversation?" If nothing changed, that's your growth edge, not the listening, but the being moved by it.Daily: Reference something from a prior conversation in your next interaction with that person. Show them that what they said last time is still with you. This is what Advanced listening looks like from the outside.Weekly: In your most significant conversation of the week, practice saying: "What you just said is making me reconsider something." Then mean it. Let your listening be visible.
4.
L: The Deep Listener - Advanced
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Your Listening Score: Advanced(Note: Scroll to the bottom to continue to the O Assessment)What This Means You listen at a level most leaders never reach. An Advanced score in Listening means you bring full-spectrum presence to your conversations, tracking content, emotional subtext, meaning, and what isn't being said, all at once. The people you lead don't just feel heard; they feel known. This is one of the most powerful gifts a leader can offer, and it is the foundation that everything else in your communication is built on.Your Signature Strength You are the leader in whose presence people become more honest, more complete, and more themselves simply because you are truly there.Your Strengths at This LevelYou receive people completely, their words, their feelings, their meaning, and what they leave unsaid.Your presence communicates safety before a word is spoken; people feel permission to be honest with you.You remember the details of conversations in ways that make people feel genuinely valued over time.You are visibly changed by what you hear and your team sees their input actually land and matter.You create the kind of psychological safety that allows people to bring their most honest, most important thinking to you.Your Growth EdgeAt Advanced, the growth edge is integration, ensuring your extraordinary listening is paired with honest self-disclosure, genuine curiosity, and emotional attunementYour deep presence can sometimes absorb too much. Notice when you are carrying others' weight at the cost of your own clarity.Let your listening be known: tell people explicitly how what they've shared has affected your thinking or decisions.Practices to TryDaily: After a significant conversation, name one thing you heard that changed something for you and, if appropriate, tell that person. Make your listening visible, not just felt.Daily: Check in with yourself: "What am I carrying from today's conversations? What do I need to process or release?" Advanced listeners can absorb a great deal invisibly, protect your capacity.Weekly: In your most important conversation of the week, practice the deepest form of listening: attend not just to what is said, but to what the person most needs you to understand. Then respond to that.