Hey, this is Christoph hacking your leadership on this discussion on employee engagement.
I want to talk about it a little bit of a follow up on the
engagement discussion we had two weeks ago. We talked about feedback and how and
how giving feedback is a very important part of making sure employees feel engaged and
remain engaged in their work. We had some listener feedback on that episode and
on the importance of receiving feedback as a leader in terms of employee engagement and
how we had some listeners reach out and say that they that their leader is
actually very good at giving feedback, and they do it well and it's received
well by them, and things are great from that standpoint. But the leader
isn't necessarily great at receiving feedback, not in that they don't want people to
give it to them or that people are scared to give it to them,
but that they talk about it from a standpoint of, oh, that's fantastic,
you know, thank you for the feedback. I love that, and
they're very easy to give feedback to. But then nothing ever changes. And
I thought that's a very interesting one because I have known leaders that do that
and it can be a tougher nut to crack a little bit, because when
a leader is just not good at receiving feedback at all, at least you
can call it out for what it is. Right. If a leader seems
like they're great at receiving feedback, but then it just seems like it's falling
on deaf ears, that can be a problem. And so when it comes
to making sure that your employees are engaged, if you, as a leader
are receiving feedback from them and you're not making changes, that's a problem.
It's important because feedback is bi directional. It always needs to be not every
single session of feedback, but in a relationship, feedback is bi directional because
the relationship has to have some reciprocity to it. There has to be kind
of like this symbiosis that occurs between a leader and an employee, and that
will not happen if feedback isn't bi directional. I love the feedback we got
from listeners saying that, and I think it's a really great call out.
Yeah, absolutely is imperative if you're trying to build trust with the team and
build a culture where you know, we talk a lot about psychological safety and
the ability to have feedback and dialogue and debate and conversation. You have to
have a space where people know that when they do share their thoughts and their
opinions and or their feedback, that there is you know, number one is
welcome. Number two, it's appreciated, even if it's not agreed upon,
but it's appreciated. And then number three that there are actions that will be
taken as a result of it when they can be. And again I say
when they can be, because not all feedback can be addressed. You're going
to have those situations where somebody is giving feedback on something that really only just
pertains to them or a need that they need or that they have or that
they want, and that can be really difficult if that it's a change to
a system or a process or something that's happening where a lot of people are
impacted by that and it may not be you know, something that can be
kind of done for everyone or in that environment, like we have to be
real sometimes and some of the things that we ask for, but I think
from a leadership standpoint, the most important part of that is, like do
you do you create the space that allows for that dialogue to happen, because
I think sometimes when it comes to feedback or adjustment, we tend to either
bucket it into like here's what that leader needs to go do differently to make
you know, the employee feel you know, more heard, more empowered,
those types of things, and then sometimes the feedback is like I want to
change this thing and and like that thing will not be changed. And sometimes
we have to as a leader to say like the answer is no, and
here's the reason why it's no. But but that is okay, so long
as it's clear, and so long is that it's not like a beating around
the bush or or you know, trying to push kick kick to kick the
can down the road or whatever. But like you're addressing it in the moment.
But it is important again more that that you allow the space to have
the conversations and that people feel comfortable coming to you to provide feedback, and
that you do something with it, even if the thing that you do with
it simply say like, well, no, that's not going to happen,
right right. I think I think there are three different types here, and
the easy ones are the are the very clear ones. It doesn't necessarily mean
leaders are good at it. I'm saying the what should be gimmes here are
the ones where you're giving feedback as a leader and you instantly agree with it.
Like what the person is saying, you're thinking to yourself, and this
is feedback on you as a person, you as a leader, your leadership
style, the way that you interact with people, the way that you that
you lead a team. Not feedback on you know what a what a company
policy is, or what you know something you have no control over. But
something about feedback directed directly at you as a leader. If you hear it
and you agree with it, that should be a gimme. And as long
as you can check your ego at the door and say that, then making
those changes, but asking for grace along the way. If it's something you've
been doing one way for a long time and someone's giving you feedback that needs
to change, being able to say, you know what, I agree with
you. This is going to happen overnight. So I would like to ask
for your partnership in you know, pulling me aside. If you see it
happen, know that I'm going to make an effort to do this as best
I can. But I want your help, So please, if you see
it out of me again, don't think that I thought you were wrong,
or that I don't think it needs to change. Know that I wanted to
change and I would love your help in making that happen. And you will
see steps, you will see change, but it's not going to be overnight.
Necessarily. If I've been doing it one way for a certain length of
time, ask for that grace and you will likely get it and you will
build a relationship with a person. But again that's one of the gimmis.
Another one of the gimmis is when you know something can't change. Right.
If a person is saying, you know, I don't want to have a
schedule. I want to be able to show up to work when I want
to show up to work, well, clearly that's not gonna that's not going
to happen, and that should be also a gimme. Where this becomes difficult
for leaders, I think is when you don't know what the answer is and
you want to validate a person for giving the feedback. And again this is
this is from listener responses said, Hey, my leader is great at receiving
feedback. It's just nothing changes I've been in situations personally where I've received feedback
and I didn't know how to take it, meaning I didn't know whether that
person was right or wrong. Clearly it was their perception, so it was
right to them, and I wanted to process it. I wanted to think
about that, and then it just kind of goes by the wayside because I
didn't really have a clear bucket to put it in either Oh, I agree,
we need to change this, or this is not possible. It's the
let's think this through and what this feedback means. If it falls into this
category, you need to think it through and see what it means, and
if it means, following up with the person and asking more questions about it,
telling them, hey, you know what, I've been thinking a lot
about our last conversation. I'd like to know more because I'm having any difficulty
with it from this perspective or that perspective. You know, I've never received
this feedback before. You're the first person, but I believe you, So
let's talk more about this. This is the follow up or action that needs
to happen. It's not necessarily that they give you feedback and you need to
change it. If you disagree with the feedback, then don't change it without
talking to them first. Talk it through with them. That's where the failure
of leadership that I think happens is you end up disagreeing with the feedback,
not in the moment, but later on and you let it go by the
wayside. I want to talk about some advice for leaders here on what they
can do in these situations, but first I want to give word for one
oversponsors. All Right, if you're a leader and you're receiving feedback from people
and you it's not a clear cut style of feedback where you inherently one hundred
percent agree or disagree that it can be done at all, but it's something
you have to think about. There's no such thing as receiving feedback like that
that is a one and done. It will require follow up conversations, and
if you're the one receiving the feedback, you need to be the one to
follow up with the conversation. And this works the opposite way too. If
your leader is giving you feedback that you have to think about and then you
inherently disagree with, you need to follow up with them too and ask them
to go into more detail about why that is. Did they just hear it
from somebody or are they seeing it same thing. If you're getting feedback from
somebody and they just are regurgitating it from somebody else, or it's based on
their personal experience, talk that out with somebody, because the worst thing you
can do is just ignore it, because you will give the impression that you
that you don't follow up or take action on feedback because their perception about what
needs to change isn't going to change. They still think it needs to change
out of you, and you can't ignore it. It has to be addressed.
You have to come to an agreement about what needs to change and whether
or not there needs to be changed. Otherwise you will you will develop,
you know, a brand of a person who is you know, seems like
they're great at taking feedback, but then nothing ever changes. Yeah. Absolutely
no, I think it's that and that's a bad place to be in honestly,
as a leader. Is like when people feel that you're just kind of
like, you know, hearing them and just kind of like placating them and
you're not being authentic and you're just you know, listening for the sake of
listening. Like people can read through some of that fakeness, and then what
ends up happening over time is they just stop doing it. Then you don't
get any feedback. Then you don't have any trust with the team, and
they don't believe that you're going to do anything that you are going to say
that you're gonna go do and that that is one of the fastest ways to
burn trust in a relationship and with the team. Right. Right. I've
often said, and I absolutely believe that the opposite of love isn't hate,
it's apathy. So if you're if you're getting feedback from somebody in a positive
way and you think, oh, okay, this is a great relationship,
and then all of a sudden that feedback turns to negative like meaning the yelling
and the screaming like you never do this, you never do this. That
isn't a sign of a lack of love or care. It's a sign that
they want this feedback to be actionable. They want you to change, and
they're frustrated that's not changing. Where you really have a problem is when it
just stops all together. If you're if you are not receiving feedback from your
people, uh, it means that they don't believe you have the ability to
change it. And believe me, there's no such thing as a leader who
doesn't need some feedback. There will always be a feedback need did on something,
and so you know, think about it from a leadership perspective. If
it's been a wall since you've received feedback on something, it doesn't mean that
nothing needs to change. It means that people are not necessarily comfortable giving you
feedback or they think it's not going to be actionable, and so you might
need to kind of start that ball rolling by reaching out to them directly and
asking for it. I appreciate you all listening again to this discussion on employe
engagement. Join us again next Thursday for another one. Have a great day.