Today’s guest served in the U.S. Army and Defense Intelligence Agency for 20 years and now teaches audiences worldwide in the art of Empathy Based Listening. Eric Maddox is an inspirational speaker, consultant, negotiation trainer, and the author of Mission: Black List No.1. Eric shares what leadership is really all about, how to truly listen to others, and ways to avoid common listening distractions.    Takeaways: Leadership is not about driving others toward your vision. True leadership is empowering others to discover their talents and using them to reach a shared vision. When building relationships as a leader, you need to listen and seek to understand what it means to be that person. Knowing that will inform whether you can work well together. When approaching a problem, it’s crucial for you to recognize what is not going to work while simultaneously not pretending to know what will work. In order to truly understand another person and learn from them, we need to clear our minds of thoughts, goals, and most importantly biases so that we can ask questions absent of biases. Through this unbiased discovery, we can get everyone on the same team. People have a serious problem with listening. We only hear and process about 25% of what someone else says. This is because the human brain cannot multitask, especially when encountering the 6 types of listening distractions. The 3 biggest  Listening Distractions are 1) What to say next, 2) Our goals in a conversation, and 3) Our biases toward the individual. When you can clear your mind of distractions, you can pick up on the breadcrumbs, the one word or phrase someone wants to hear while talking with you. You should try to pick out the breadcrumb but don’t assume you know what it is, let yourself discover more about it.   Quote of the Show: “The best way to get answers is to ask questions” - Eric Maddox   Links: Email: info@ericmaddox.com  Twitter: ​​https://twitter.com/EricBMaddox  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericmaddoxmba/  Website: https://www.ericmaddox.com/  Mission: Black List No.1: https://a.co/d/aiErFGt    Ways to Tune In: Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b9436ea0-3e54-4c2d-a555-43e6ac890787 Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-impactful-leadership-show/id1608566236 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/39cdJjxlfGrGXreE7r8OBm Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tL2ltcGFjdGZ1bGxlYWRlcnNoaXAvZmVlZC54bWw iHeartRadio: https://iheart.com/podcast/95281596 PlayerFM: https://player.fm/series/3352055 YouTube: https://youtu.be/qruRkZEsXkc    The Impactful Leadership Show is sponsored by the DC Chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization. Learn more at https://www.eodcnetwork.org/home  The Impactful Leadership Show is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/