I didn’t realize how rarely I had been truly listened to until I met someone who did it with intention.
When I first started working with Roxanne almost ten years ago, I remember feeling almost startled by the way she listened. It wasn’t passive. It wasn’t polite. It was present. The kind of listening that makes you slow down mid‑sentence and think, Wait… what am I actually saying? It was the first time I felt the weight and warmth of someone giving me their full attention without rushing to respond.
That experience changed me. It made me curious about what deep listening can do — not just for relationships, but for teams, for leadership, for the way we move through the world.
Listening is a Skill
In Part 1 of our conversation, Roxanne and I talk about how listening is not a natural-born talent. It’s a skill. One she practiced and refined over years by asking better questions and being willing to sit in the pause. She reminded me how often we default to surface-level questions like “What’s new?” and then act surprised when we get surface-level answers.
Her approach is different. She asks questions that make people think. Questions that invite reflection. Questions that say, “I actually want to know you.”
Listening is about Connection
And that’s the heart of it — listening is about connection. It’s about seeing the person in front of you as a whole human, not just a role or a task or a name on a screen. When teams feel seen, they show up differently. They support each other more naturally. They speak up sooner. They trust each other enough to have the real conversations in the room instead of the “meeting after the meeting.”
But deep listening also requires boundaries and consent. Roxanne always tells new team members that they can pass on any question. That simple permission creates safety. It honors the fact that not everyone opens up at the same pace — and that’s okay.
What struck me most in this conversation was how listening isn’t just a leadership skill. It’s a relational skill. A human skill. And it’s one we’re desperately missing in a world that moves fast, multitasks constantly, and treats attention like a scarce resource.
Listening slows us down. It brings us back to each other. It reminds us that connection is built one question, one pause, one moment of presence at a time.
If you’d like to hear more from Roxanne, you can subscribe to her Substack:
https://substack.com/@roxannehupp/posts
Or reach out to her direction through email: