Improving communication at work – the key to building employee engagement
Wednesday, February 21, 2024 - Joe Kiedinger
Hey – special announcement! If you’re unsure why everything looks different, we recently rebranded from Prophit Co. to Dignify and launched a massive update to our platform and website! If you’re curious to know more, check out our socials, browse our website, or register/log in to your Dignify account. Happy reading! – Joe.
From checked out to engaged – one meeting changed everything for this person
Not too long ago, a client team leader told me that they were dealing with a very disengaged employee, and they didn’t know what to do. An otherwise good performer, this employee was checked out, and nobody knew why. People said that this employee was always showing up late and didn’t listen, and that he wouldn’t change his behavior no matter what anyone did. This went on for five months, and people were growing increasingly frustrated with him.
The first thing I did was ask the team leader to set up a Check-In with this employee. The results were eye-opening. This one simple Check-In solved a five-month-long issue in under an hour. It was revealed that this employee’s son was dealing with challenges that required him to be there as a father. That was why he was always showing up to places late and why he sometimes got caught up in his thoughts despite his best efforts.
After hearing this, the leader completely understood his perspective and put empathy into practice by adjusting his schedule to help accommodate what he was dealing with. The employee could now care for his son without the constant pressure of being late or messing something up on the job. At the same time, he could do his job and work with others better knowing that he had fulfilled his duties to his son.
Connecting emotions and logic solves challenges fast
When the employee was given a platform to talk about his emotions in a logical way, he was easily able to explain what was going on and why his behavior seemingly wasn’t changing. The leader, having what he needed to engage with the topic in a way that honored the employee’s dignity, was able to make one small adjustment that tangibly helped him not just at work, but at home as well.
Before Dignify was rolled out at this organization, they didn’t know how to get this employee re-engaged with his work because they couldn’t even understand he was disengaged to begin with. And the employee didn’t know exactly how to express himself about the issue because it was so deeply emotional to him and was causing frustration among his teammates.
Most of the challenges that we face in life, whether they are at work or at home, are emotional matters. Logically discussing them and taking actions to address them isn’t easy. When people can’t do this, it starts a vicious cycle that can negatively impact a company forever. That means constant frustration, lowered engagement, and subpar performance can become the new normal faster than you know it.
With Dignify, productive and logical discussions around emotional matters become not just possible, but normal. Leaders are empowered with the tools they need to connect with their employees through empathy, understanding, and solving problems at their roots. When leaders honor their employees’ dignity like this, employees are more satisfied with their jobs by a factor of 63%. We know that satisfied employees are engaged employees, and you probably don’t need me to tell you that engaged employees are overall better at what they do. Better retention, higher profitability, more productivity – you name it. Dignity is the key to unlocking engagement, and engagement is the key to unlocking success.
JOE KIEDINGER
ACTION PLAN: Check in with a struggling employee and see what you can do to alleviate their stress or pull them out from their slump.