Improving life through better listening.
Bio for Stanford Slovin
Stanford is a wealth management advisor. For over 30 years, Stanford Slovin has worked in the securities industry with individuals, families, and business owners as a financial professional with major national brokerage firms. Stan earned his Bachelor of Science degree in finance at the Champaign-Urbana campus of the University of Illinois. He also holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law.
He is the author of “Better Listening: The Secret to Improving Your Professional and Personal Life,” and as a speaker showcases how listening improves communication and conflict resolution. Stanford is actively involved in charitable organizations focusing on mental health and children with disabilities. He loves traveling and plays in a rock and roll band.
Episode highlight
In this episode, our guest, Stanford Slovin, educates us on the importance of empathetic and reflective listening. According to Stan, the world would be a better place if we all listened better. Stan shares his childhood and professional experiences, and we also get to hear about his involvement in the Side Hustle band.
Links
- Website: Better Listening Book
- LinkedIn: Stanford Slovin
Takeaways
Childhood Incidents
Growing up, Stanford and his family used to travel a lot. One of the things he vividly recalls is how his father would take the time to talk to the waitstaff and bellhops just to know how their days were faring. The experience with his father inspired him to write his book. He believes that our modern day is filled with so many distractions and we are always in reaction mode. Listening to understand people is not something we do anymore.
Stanford also recalls how his dad gave a chance to people, including their family members and employees, to express themselves and share.
Leadership and Cultural Influence
According to Stanford, the best leaders are the best listeners. He recalls when he was a young adult, people would come to vent to him, and he always gave them a chance to feel listened to. As an adult, he has learned to ask people whether they just want to be listened to or need his input once they are done venting.
For instance, if he gets home and someone just wants to rant about how the day didn’t go well, it can be very tempting to want to try give solutions to the person, but at times people just want to be heard without being given any input.
When you’re brought up in a Midwest city, you are in a cultural, religious, social, and economic setting that is very insular. When you move out or visit other places, you realize how much of the world you know little about.
Growing up, during summer Stanford and his family would spend two to three months on their farm in Galena, Illinois. The exposure to a rural setting introduced him to people who were extremely different from him in their religion, political stance, and economically helping him to experience one other lens of diversity.
Influential Groups
From a cultural and personal standpoint, Stanford chose a career focused on relationships, social interactions, sales, and service. He chose a profession that focused on communication rather than one confined to a lab, isolated from people, or dominated by data analysis and paperwork.
Personality and Temperament
Stanford has always been gregarious, spontaneous, and enthusiastic. Over the years, he has become more positive, patient, and listens better. His daughter describes him as passively aggressive in a positive way. He has also learned how to understand his audience so that he can communicate better.
Cultural Dissonance
Stanford went to school to study law, and he was committed to practicing law when he graduated, but along the way, realized he had a passion for wealth management. He had to embrace cold calling, asking strangers to trust him with their investments. The professional shock of cold calling lasted for 18 to 24 months.
What Brings Out the Best in Stanford?
Stanford thrives in an environment where he understands what’s important to the people he is working with. He is always looking for details about what is important to them.
Soapbox Moment
Stanford encourages us to get and read his book. The three key takeaways he would want us to have from the book include impactful conversations, empathy, and more reflective and active listening.
Stanford Slovin EXTRO
Stanford grew up in the Midwest in Chicago where he experienced urban professional life with a gregarious and social family during the winter, and an equally gregarious and social urban farming experience during the summer. As an adult, he moved from a law culture of having people come to you in a more formal and limited relationship, to relationship based sales and financial advisor work built through cold calling and careful listening. From his initial efforts to put aside his own agenda so he could invite others to “tell me more”, Stan learned that better listening is an ongoing practice. Here are my four takeaways from our interview:
- You can learn cultural bridging moving between urban and rural experiences.
- One location shift, can result in differences of political orientation, livelihood, affiliation to land or to man-made environments, religion and social class.
- Moving from one profession to another builds new capacities and rekindles latent personality traits.
- A singular focus on listening brings insight to any context.
I would love to hear your takeaways from this episode. You can actually dictate your thoughts to me in your own voice: https://shiftworkplace.com/podcast. Scroll down to the box that says “I would love to hear from you!” and just press “record”.
