Joel Peterson, Chairman at JetBlue – Listening Without an Agenda!

From time to time I like to write about awesome people that have in some way impacted my life! While I do not personally know this particular man, I truly hope someday I meet Joel!  He inspired me and in turn I want to share the story with all of you!

In early 2015 I boarded a flight on a Monday morning, and I can honestly say I wasn’t in the best of moods.  However, I buckled up in seat 10C in route to New York.  As the doors to the flight closed, I realized I had the whole row to myself (things were getting better :)) and in my own fidgety way, I looked for something to read while we taxied down the runway.    In the seat beside me there were remnants of a already read newspaper (the NY Times) so I pulled it out and started looking for something interesting to read! I found this article and I could not put it down, in fact I got my pen out and began underlining the words (picture attached) as I read them! Impactful would be an understatement! I instantly knew this man and loved his style!

I carried the paper around with me in my laptop bag for months, and shared it with many of my employees in a lesson on why “Listening Without An Agenda” was so critical in everything we do!

See to often in life we are in such a rush that we simply don’t LISTEN! I’m guilty! So this article really hit home with me but not just because Joel pointed out that we need to listen but what you get out of listening, and learn about the person you are listening to. He says in the article when asked why people trust him – “For me, a lot of it is listening. I’m a really good listener. It’s not a technique – I’m really interested in what people have to say.” (wow, that’s awesome!)..he went on to say, “..it develops trust as a byproduct. If you’re authentic, open, you call things as they are, you really are direct and listen well, that develop trust.”   I read this over and over and said to myself  it’s really that simple! (I almost said it out loud but keep in mind I was on a flight so didn’t want people to think here I was talking to myself). 🙂

He went on to say in the very next paragraph.. “and you can’t have an agenda. When you have your own agenda when you’re listening to someone, what you’re doing is you’re formulating your response rather than processing what the other person is saying” Wow! Now this part is not so easy!  He goes on to say, “You have to really be at home with yourself. If you have these driving needs to show off or be heard, then that overwhelms the process. If you are really grounded and at home with yourself, then you can actually get into the other person’s world….”

As I share this story with all of you, I again realize while this article was so impactful for me on that flight to New York in early 2015!  My takeaways were to slow down, and genuinely give people the time they deserve whether during a short meeting, passing them in the hallway at work, during a phone call etc and what you will reap from just simply listening will be so much more than what you might have gained from saving an extra few minutes from rushing to the next activity at hand!

I hope you will all find this article and this gentlemen as inspiring as I did, in a simple lesson in life that we all need to be reminded of!

I was reminded to keep being curious (reach in the seat pocket beside me for something to read- unless there is someone in that seat :)), slow down and enjoy life and finally that my peers, friends, family, employees, etc have a lot to say, and I just might learn something if I simply listen without an agenda!