The Art of Active Listening

When employees, colleagues, and customers are not being heard, organizational culture, employee happiness, and overall organizational success will suffer. 

In her new book, The Art of Active Listening: How People at Work Feel Heard, Valued, and Understood (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, April 27, 2023) best-selling author Heather R. Younger strives to improve communication, engagement, and culture with active listening. 

Backed by her personal review of over 30,000 employee and customer surveys, and facilitation of hundreds of focus groups, Younger discovered one universal truth: We all want to be heard. We want our voices to matter. We want the work we do to matter. When we get this right - when we listen to our employees and customers and care about them not just for what they can do but for who they ARE - they can, and will move mountains.

Striving to give a voice to the voiceless, Heather is teaching people at work and in life, how to feel heard, valued, and understood while simultaneously decoding the big picture to expose the important signals and insights to communication. It is the difference between thinking we understand what people want and knowing what they want. 

When those at work feel heard, they will do whatever it takes to achieve outcomes that serve your relationship and your organization.

About the Author

Heather R. Younger is an experienced international keynote speaker, best-selling author, and the CEO and Founder of Employee Fanatix, a leading employee engagement, leadership development, and DEI consulting firm, where she is on a mission to help leaders understand the power they possess to ensure people feel valued at work. Known as The Employee Whisperer™, Heather harnesses humor, warmth, and an instant relatability to engage and uplift audiences and inspire them into action. Her experiences as an entrepreneur, manager, attorney, writer, coach, listener, speaker, collaborator, and mother of 4 all lend themselves to a laser-focused clarity into what makes employees of organizations and companies—large and small—tick.

Heather is the author of three books including her newest, The Art of Active Listening: How People at Work Feel Heard, Valued, and Understood, which is fast becoming a go-to source for HR professionals and organizational leaders seeking insight into their organization’s dynamics, to become better communicators, and to ensure everyone feels valued, heard, and understood. Her previous best-selling book, The Art of Caring Leadership: How Leading with Heart Uplifts Teams and Organizations was widely praised for offering powerful insights for developing authentic, thoughtful, and purposeful leaders and change-makers

Heather hosts the weekly podcast Leadership with Heart, which uncovers what drives leaders from all over the world and all walks of life to be more emotionally intelligent leaders. She has contributed her expertise in articles and interviews across a wide variety of media outlets including The Chicago Tribune, Fast Company, CNN Business, and Forbes, and is a frequent guest on top leadership and culture podcasts.

Heather is a Certified Diversity Professional, is certified in Emotional and Social Intelligence and DiSCTM, and has a law degree from the University of Colorado Boulder Colorado Law school. She lives in Aurora, Colorado, with her husband and four children, and enjoys hanging around with her crew. You may also find her trying to sneak into a movie all by herself for some peace and quiet.