07th October 2022
Combat Micro-Management and Increase Employee Engagement in Four Steps
It is well document that employee engagement is paramount to high performing teams and ongoing operational success.
But how much direct engagement do employees really want?
A recent study for Red Thread Research by Stacia Garr & Priyanka Mehrotra uncovered some polarizing views.
The study, which was carried out to determine best practices for business leaders in the hybrid era found that managers that display high levels of trust in their teams experienced engagement levels of up to 88% within their teams.
However, 7 in 10 employees said that they would like to experience more frequent check ins from their leaders.
So as a leader, how do you strike the right balance?
Read this insightful article by Stacia Garr, to find out:
From the article in Harvard Business Review:
The Power of Deep Connections
Our research found that employees crave genuine connections not just with their colleagues, but also across hierarchies within their organization. More specifically, when someone feels that their relationship with their manager is authentic, and that their manager wants to give them the tools they need to successfully do their job, that person is less stressed, more satisfied, and more likely to stay at the company.
Though it may seem like too much, our survey data and conversations showed that employees are actually more engaged when managers conduct daily check-ins. To avoid micromanaging and build trust, these check-ins should contain four elements.
1) Focus the conversation on your team member and their needs.
The goal of each check-in is to make sure that your employee has what they need from you and the organization to do their job well — today.
Use the questions below to structure your discussions:
- What’s working well today, and what’s not working well?
- What barriers are standing in your way, and how can I help clear them?
- Do you need any information or data that you’re not getting right now?
When you’re checking in daily, you may find that some issues take more time to resolve than others. For example, sometimes your employee may need clarification around a process or task that you can address on the spot. Other times, they may need resources or tools that aren’t immediately available. For ongoing issues, let your employee know that you’re on top of it, and be clear about the time it will take for you to get back to them. You can use the daily check-ins to provide them with any updates, but try to focus it mostly on the here and now.
2) Keep it short.
Your check-ins don’t need to be overly formal, or even take much time. In fact, it’s better if they don’t. Managers and workers are facing very heavy workloads as it is, in part because the “great resignation” has left employees shouldering the work of departed colleagues.
Keep your check-ins to brief conversations, just a few minutes long, either by video for remote employees or in person if both you and your employee are in the office. These discussions can even be short Slack or Teams messages, which employees can respond to whenever they have time. You and your team members can determine what works best for them. Different people may have different preferences around communication, so be open to their unique needs.
3) Give honest feedback.
Sometimes, you may need to address a problem with an employee’s work. In our research, we looked into how to best handle this in check-ins with employees.
We found that serious, ongoing performance problems that involve difficult conversations are better suited to more formal, monthly meetings. These detailed discussions will give you deeper visibility into your employee’s work, give them a chance to reflect on what’s causing the problems, and remind your employee that you care about their long-term goals and career progression.
At the same time, this doesn’t mean you should avoid discussing problems entirely in your daily check-ins. Instead, use your monthly meeting as a point of reference in your daily meetings, and ask your employee how they’re progressing in addressing the problems you previously discussed. This will show your employee that you trust them enough to give them the autonomy to improve on their own, while also offering in-the-moment observations about how a specific task reflects them moving in the right or wrong direction.
In both cases — monthly meetings and daily check-ins — managers should be honest. Our study found that when managers are transparent with employees about their performance, the likelihood that the employee will perform a task better triples.
This is also why active listening is so important for managers. If your team members sense that you’re hearing them, considering what they have to say, and including it in your assessment of their work, a greater level of trust — and a deeper connection — will be developed.
4) Track your results.
Offer your employees regular surveys in which they can rate the quality of these conversations. Include room for more than just numbers. Allow for anonymous responses in which employees share no-holds-barred concerns about how the check-in process is going. You need this feedback to improve the quality of your meetings, and assess whether the frequency of meetings is working well for your team.
Over time, you may find that daily check-ins become second nature, just another part of the daily workflow. And if your team’s feedback is positive, the organization as a whole will reap the rewards.
Read the full article, here.
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