One of the hottest topics in business today is employee engagement. However, actually increasing employee engagement is another thing altogether. There has been extensive research on this topic. At the core of all that research lie two critical pieces of information.
The first factor is seated in how the employee feels about the job. The second factor is how the employee feels about him or herself doing that job.
A leader not only has the ability, but also the responsibility to help employees feel good about their job and feel good about themselves while doing the job. One of the biggest challenges a leaders faces is the simple fact that they are responsible for the level of performance of each of their direct reports. With the pressure on the leader to improve performance, it becomes too easy to ignore the fact that disengaged employees are poor performers. If you improve engagement, better performance will follow.
The subject this week is empathetic listening skills.
We use a simplified empathetic listening process that consists of only two steps.
Step One: Initially, pause – for at least 5 seconds. Listen for understanding. Do not respond immediately to what you hear but take the time to make sure that you fully understand what your employee is communicating. Listen to what they are saying and then repeat back to the employee what it is that you think you have heard. Ask them, “Is this what you’re trying to tell me”? It may take two or three, maybe even four exchanges of information before the employee says, “Yes, that’s what I’m trying to tell you”.
Step Two: This step can sometimes be a little more difficult. This step is about asking the employee what it is they would like you to do regarding what they have told you. What often happens is the employee will begin to suggest what they see as a possible solution to the problem they’ve posed, but not given the opportunity to share their thoughts. If you encourage them to share how they would solve the problem, they end up owning and becoming more engaged in the solution. This simple process works extremely well. As a result, leaders intervene only when employees really need them and employees take ownership of their own work.