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Every day I advise, train, and coach leaders on how to be better bosses. Often this involves
giving leaders insight into the conditions they must create in the work place to get
employees to care and try and give their all. As often as possible I try to talk about the
small interactions that take place every day that often feel inconsequential but hold the
key to getting teams firing on all cylinders. That’s why, in this episode of Your Practice
Ain’t Perfect, I’m going to share with you a very specific kind of reaction that
the very best leaders have when employees share ideas or make suggestions. And there’s
a pretty good chance it’s something you aren’t doing often enough, if at all. I’ll
tell you more after the opening credits, so don’t go anywhere.
A few years ago a midsize primary care practice group asked me to advise their physician owners
on how to respond to their most recent employee engagement survey. They were concerned that
scores weren’t high enough, and they were specifically distraught that one of the lowest
scoring items on the survey were employee perceptions of how much senior leaders cared
about what employees thought or what they faced every day.
Before I got involved, the physician leaders responded to the survey by holding an all-staff
meeting where they described in detail all of the effort they were putting forth to support
employees, what their mission, vision, and values were, and their commitment to serving
patients at the highest level across the organization. I asked later how much talking did the staff
do or how many questions did they ask. I was told “Not much. The doctors did most of
the talking.”
I hate to break it to you, I told them, but that meeting was a waste of time, and might’ve
made things worse.
What these doctors should have done at their all staff meeting was simply express that
they were committed to improving in the areas of concern on the survey. They should’ve
told the staff we want to know how we can improve or what we can do differently around
here to better meet your needs. Then, they should have stopped talking. They should have
spent the rest of that meeting drawing out staff ideas and suggestions, big and small,
with the doctors demonstrating a commitment to simply listen and take it all in. As staff
shared their thoughts, the doctors could have simply said thank you for sharing that or
OK we’ll work on that.
As you interact with members of your team every single day, it’s probably common that
some of them share ideas, or make suggestions, or give voice to concerns. How often do you
immediately respond to these statements with validation or dismissal? What I mean is do
you respond by agreeing with the premise of what they said? Disagreeing? Minimizing?
Successful leaders know that one of the critical elements of employee engagement is that employees
feel their voices are being heard. When individual contributors give voice to a thought, idea,
or suggestion and your reaction immediately labels it as worthwhile or not, you skip right
over an opportunity to nurture that employees engagement. Instead of reacting to the comment
in the moment, simply thank them for sharing it. Just acknowledge that they’ve chosen
to share an insight and leave it at that for a while. You can follow up later as to what
you can or will do with their suggestion. This approach keeps the focus on the employee
having a voice. When employees share ideas, opinions, or suggestions, the best bosses
genuinely listen and say thank you. Want your employees to be more engaged? Want to nurture
trust and respect in the workplace? Stop reacting to every suggestion as valid or not, and instead
say thank you for sharing your thoughts, I appreciate that.
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next time.