Employee Engagement

“Just be honest with me.”

Have you caught yourself in one of these conversations with an employee?

Whenever a manager feels the need to cajole an employee into being honest, there’s a larger problem at hand aside from guilty fibs or little white lies.

It might be that members of your team are afraid to be totally honest with you. Why? The hidden reason could be coming from your company culture – or even directly from you!

Some leaders don’t want to hear honest-to-goodness assessments because they might also have to hear some bad news. In some cases, opening themselves up to honest assessments from employees is as welcome as a root canal.

And employees almost always pick up on the sense that the unfiltered truth may be less than welcome with certain bosses, managers or other colleagues, especially when there are critical decisions on the line.

They create a “don’t go there!” rule in their minds and self-censor when being honest means a critical or negative response.

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“I feel like I’m not getting through to them.”

“Don’t they hear what I’m saying?”

“They just don’t listen to me!”

Any time we try to teach and can’t get employees to catch on, it’s frustrating.

We pride ourselves on being good coaches. So, when we can’t seem to get employees on the same page, it saps even the most patient manager.

But before pinning the blame on the employee, consider that the problem could be coming from you.

A crucial part of coaching is to play to the person’s strengths.

It’s useless to coach a 350-pound lineman to be a fleet-footed wide receiver. It helps to think of your employees the same way.

“Coach employees to their strongest abilities and the lessons will pay off,” says David Lee, founder of HumanNature@work.

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To light a fire under employees – and keep it burning – be an inspiration.

Employees with inspirational bosses are engaged, productive, reliable and loyal, a Gallup poll found.

Almost all of those who don’t have an encouraging boss are actively disengaged.

How can you inspire employees? Do what inspirational bosses have in common:

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Experts say team-building exercises can be very successful when done right. They foster trust, promote communication and increase collaboration among employees.

Problem is, they’re seldom done right. And they become team-breaking exercises.

Just the mere mention of those three little words – team-building exercises – can make some people cringe and call out sick.

Can’t blame them. Too often the activities are humiliating or just downright stupid.

Don’t believe me?

Check out these examples of team-breaking, er, team-building exercises gone wrong:

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Wouldn’t it be great if star employees never left?

But we all know, that at some point something will happen that’ll cause one of your “A” players to leave.

What that “something” is may not be in your control.

Problem is, employee turnover costs companies A LOT of money!

Direct employee replacement costs can reach as high as 50% to 60% of an employee’s annual salary, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. And when other factors are included, total costs can soar as high as 90% to 200% of an annual salary.

That’s some serious moola!

So what can you do?

Pay attention to your employees and watch for signs that they may be getting restless, and nip it in the bud.

The typical signs are:

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Storytelling isn’t just for the office gossip anymore. It has real leadership advantages.

Managers can more effectively sway people with stories than with logic. A well-delivered tale can win hearts and minds.

Here are the keys to effective storytelling:

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Dorothy Parker, the satirist, is famous for saying, “If you have nothing good to say about someone, sit next to me.”

Someone like Parker is likely employed at your organization. These are the folks who live for the scraps of information – negative or positive – that are traded day in and day out in most workplaces.

Office gossip and the office grapevine are as old as the workplace and as difficult to manage as the people and processes in them.

People can rarely resist “spilling the beans” when they hear a juicy tidbit of information, whether it’s about work or a colleague.

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As a leader, you want to be a straight-talker. No sugarcoating, exaggerating or minimizing. But there’s a fine line between straight talk and a toxic tone.

Some seemingly innocent phrases can have a negative impact on everything from morale and productivity to the bottom line.

So, you want to avoid phrases and mindsets – like these seven – that can pollute a positive work environment.

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Ever feel like employees just don’t listen to you?

Well, you aren’t alone – for two reasons.

There are a lot of managers feel the same way you do.

The second reason? Many employees actually don’t listen.

And it comes at a big cost: Studies say companies lose more than $25,000 per employee each year because poor communication hurts productivity.

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You might have a great team already.

But inevitably, you will have a few model citizens or “rock star” employees that stand out. You wish all your team members would be like them because that would make your life as a manager so much easier.

You know you can depend on your best employees. They consistently deliver great results and at times are willing to go above and beyond the call of duty.

But the results of comparing employees to each other can be disastrous.

Here’s why you shouldn’t play the comparison game.

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