June 26, 2025 • 14 mins
Sometimes the most common causes of low employee engagement aren't actually what is causing it on your team. Over 8 episodes we'll cover some of the less-obvious causes so you can take steps to mitigate them.
Welcome to the Engagement Exchange.
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Welcome to the Engagement Exchange.
Patreon Account: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=22174142
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/hacking-your-leadership-podcast--4805674/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is christ with Hacking your leadership. On today's
discussion on employee engagement, we're continuing the topics that we
started about a month ago now on the causes of
employee engagement that might be a little bit more insidious,
not the kind of the commonly known themes of you know,
the compensation isn't high enough, or the workload is too high,
or the not enough opportunities. These are the kind of
(00:22):
the issues that might be the underlying cause of disengagement
that that might not be as obvious to you as
a leader. And if you have gone through all the
usual suspects and you have not found a way to
solve the employee engagement problems that you're having, these are
the things that you should be focusing on next to
see if this is where the problem lies. On this episode,
(00:43):
which is number five of six, we're gonna be talking
about a lack of transparency. And you know, I can
speak from personal experience and tell you that, you know,
depending on how long I've been with an organization and
how well things are going on in my personal life
and in things that are outside of work, that will
determine how much tolerance I have for a lack of transparency,
(01:08):
meaning when when when a when a leadership team or
a leader in general, or an organizations communications don't instill
a feeling of transparency with me, then my mind can
do one of two things. I can go the route
of assuming positive intent, like, oh, I don't know the answer,
but whatever it is, it must be a good one,
(01:29):
and I'm just gonna, you know, keep focusing on the
prize whatever that is, and trust that things will work out.
Or if things are not going as well and I'm
not in a positive headspace, then that lack of transparency
leads me to say things to myself like, oh, well,
you know, they're they don't know what they're doing. Or
the people who created this this strategy, they they haven't
walked a mile in my shoes. Clearly, they've never worked
(01:51):
in my role. What are they thinking? You know? These
are the stories that people tell when there's a lack
of transparency. And if you want to control that narrative,
meaning not from an insidious standpoint, but if you just
want to make sure people aren't filling in the gaps
with things that aren't true, the easiest way to do
that is to be more transparent about everything. That you
(02:14):
possibly can be transparent on and as a leader. I
think I think a lot of leaders really discount the
importance of this, not because they they are trying to
like protect people or say, oh that they don't need
to know this. I think a lot of it is
assumed that they do. I think a lot of leaders
assume that if they have access to data that somehow
(02:35):
it will trickle down to everybody else, when in a
lot of situations it doesn't unless you, as the leader
take active steps to not just trickle it down, but
to reiterate it over and over again with both the
team as a whole as well as individual people on
the team, so that the connections can be made to
the work that is being asked and what the outcomes
(02:55):
or expected results are.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah, I think it's it's such an important thing to
talk about. I love that you said, like you got
to be transparent about as much as possible, and I
think it's most things, Like I really do believe like
there there are some things that based upon the role
that you have, the responsibility that you have, the access
that you have that you're not able to share, or
that you get early. You know, like those types of
things happen. But for the most part, the transparency aspect
(03:19):
is like we're willing to talk about anything that we can.
We're willing to share when there are questions, We're willing
to to talk about things that that may be you know,
not working well. There's just just dialogue around world, Like
if you have questions, let's talk about it, or you
want perspective or you want to have dialogue. I think
(03:40):
working through and and and doing your best not to
avoid the hard conversations. I think that's the one where
transparency I think gets most tested is like when you
know that you're going to have to share something, or
when you know that the message or what you have
to land is probably not going to go overwhell. It
(04:01):
could be a change, it could be an adjustment to something.
It could be you know, a project that you've been
working on is like no longer viable for the company,
like anything like that where there has to be conversation
that can be you know, like I think that would
be pushed back on or not welcomed with, you know,
(04:21):
with with with arms wide open type of thing. That's
when we tend to like only say what we have
to say or not be fully transparent with it. I
also think when it comes to like, you know, uh,
kind of performance as a team versus performances as an individual.
There's a lot of times when it's like share over
sharing can make it seem like that these things or
(04:44):
this metric or this outcome is more important than the
values that we have for the work that we have
to do. And so like, let's not share talk about
it because we don't want to send the wrong message. Well,
the only way to send the wrong message is to
either send the wrong message or not send a message
right and let them create their own message or narrative
to your point, So like having a conversation sharing what
(05:04):
you have, letting that space be open to talk about
it is that two way communication that's necessary for people
to feel informed and evolved, but also know that there's
a space where they can come and ask questions or
express themselves when it comes to things that maybe you
are working well or not working well.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah, completely, So I like that you give an example
about giving the wrong message or no message at all. Really,
the litmus test for whether or not it's important to
share is whether or not it could possibly impact that
employees experience, regardless of what their goals are with the organization.
And so if there is a metric or a scorecard
(05:42):
that is not being shared with me, but it also
has no impact on whether or not I can get promoted,
or whether or not I can move up in the organization,
or whether or not I can be eligible for this
thing because I can't impact it with my own behaviors.
I can't impact it with influencing the team. I really
have no control over whatsoever. Then that's fine if you
don't want to share that. It's really hard to connect
(06:04):
somebody's work to something that they truly have no control over.
But if the goal is to make sure that that
the that what you're espousing on the scorecard doesn't conflict
with the with the the stated values, so you decide
to not share what that thing is one either that
means that the values that you're espousing actually don't align
(06:26):
with with the with the pushing of whatever the scorecard is,
and you should you should change how you state your values,
or you should change whether or not that scorecard matters
when it comes to people moving up within the organization,
Because if you're not talking about something with me, that
that will become important. If I want to get promoted,
then you're doing me a disservice because if I if
I want to get promoted and I have no idea
(06:48):
what the things are that are being looked at behind
the scenes, it's kind of like a oh, no, you
didn't get this job. Why did I get this job? Well,
you didn't do this and this and this well, and
I if my response is I didn't know I was
supposed to do that, not not to begin with, then
I've already been failed by my leadership team or by
my direct leader. If I don't know what those things are,
and if they've kept and if they've kept those things
(07:08):
from me because they felt like I either a couldn't
handle them or they didn't want me to think that
those things didn't align with what the values were, then
either they didn't do a good job telling the story
about how they do align, or they don't align, and
one of those two things needs to change. But either way,
that lack of transparency just leads to a terrible employee
(07:29):
experience eventually, or it leads to employees telling the wrong
story in their own head because of the lack of
information that you're giving them. I want to go over
some of things you can do as a leader to
kind of make sure that you aren't falling into this
trap that you're giving people the information they need without
necessarily oversharing or things that aren't necessary to do their job,
(07:50):
or things that you really shouldn't be sharing. But first,
let's give it up toward for one of our sponsors.
All right, if you're a leader of people, as Lorenzo
said earlier, there are really very few things that you
shouldn't be sharing when it comes to performance management or
disciplinary action for another employee that's not another employees business.
That's between you and that other employee. When it comes
(08:11):
to you know, things that if you if you're a
fiduciary of your organization, meaning you've been given information that
that that restricts how you how you trade stock within
your organization, then that information you shouldn't be sharing with
people that aren't entrusted with that fiduciary duty. Outside of
those things, there really isn't much that you can't share,
especially if asked by by an employee. But to start,
(08:35):
look at all the things that would be necessary for
an employee to move up within an organization if they
want to get promoted, or if they want to be
eligible for job opportunities, or leadership opportunities, or or stretch assignments,
whatever that may be. Anything that you know will be
necessary to make a person qualified for and successful at
that is something you should preemptively be sharing with that person,
(08:59):
because not sharing with them will set them up for
failure when it comes to that journey. And then in
the course of action with other employees, share those things
with them too, and see which ones of them kind
of gravitate towards it, grab on to it and want
to know more about it. Just putting yourself out there
as a place that employees can go to find this information,
and then sharing high level things with people as much
(09:20):
as you can will allow people to kind of self
select into what they want. Because some people who don't
want to move up and who don't want to get promoted,
maybe they don't want to go as granular as some
of the people who do want to get moved up.
But it's still important that they know how their successes
impact the business. It's still important to know that, hey,
you know, as a team, we did this, and look
how many people got promoted this year. As a team,
(09:41):
we did this, and look how many people we were
able to hire this year. Those are the positive things
that can allow a person to say, Okay, all this
talk we've had about the behaviors that I should be
doing and the way I should be interacting with my
clients or my customers, there's a reason for all that,
And this is the fruits of that labor, which is
that now there's more people on the team, there's more promotions,
there's more doors being opened, and maybe now I want
(10:03):
to get in to be a part of that, or
maybe I don't, but at least I can connect the dots. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
I think it's that level of communication and sharing what's
going on in real time and continuing to give updates
on whether to your point, it's like promotions or business
outcomes or completion of projects or impact that you're having
on whatever you measure, but like the constant elements of
(10:30):
making sure people are up to speed, they're up to date,
they feel that they are not only a part of
something bigger, but that what's being measured is something that
is you know that they're a part of doing and
can feel celebrated about. I think those are big pieces
of it. I think though for me, it's always gonna
come back down to that element of like when it's
(10:53):
a tough conversation, or when it's something that is a disagreement,
or when there's a decision that was made it's having
a potential negative impact, Like those are the moments to
me that transparency means the most. I think you need
to have it all the time. So I love that
you brought up examples where it's like, these are ways
that you should constantly be transparent about what's going on
(11:13):
and what's happening around us at all times. And that
allows you then to create the space so that when
something is needed to be addressed, it's not out of place.
It's not like, Okay, well wait a minute, why is
Chris all of a sudden now wanted to talk about
something about, you know, an outcome or a business thing
or a decision when he never ever really does that,
Like it feels weird now versus no, Chris always does this.
(11:37):
It's just this time it's something that we need to
talk a little bit more about, or that we may
have more feelings about that type of thing. So again,
I think that that's the biggest part of it is
it has to happen consistently with all of the things
that are going on, so that when you do have
kind of a major one where you have to explain
the why or talk through a concern, that you've kind
(11:59):
of got this foundation built up of how you navigate
with your team and how much you share with your team.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Right, and you have to keep in mind too. I
think this is I think a lot of the reasons
why a leader may hesitate to share or be transparent
when it comes to those tough conversations. I think a
lot of leaders don't realize that the lack of information
from them doesn't mean a lack of information. It means
a lack of true information. Because the employees that you're
(12:27):
avoiding having these conversations with, it's not that they're going
through their life blind to what's going on and everything's fine.
They're going through their day hearing things that aren't true
or only partially true from other people who have heard
about certain things, like information is being shared when it's
not being shared by you, it means that it's not
(12:47):
just that they don't have information, it's that they potentially
have wrong information, and that can lead to significantly more
problems when it comes to employee engagement than if you
just took the time to be real with an employee
and share with them. And it is super important to
do this as early as you can, because if it's
viewed is that you're doing it in reaction to negative
(13:08):
false information that they have about a process or something
that's coming down, and now you're stepping in weeks or
months later to give them the true information you're going
to that information will be looked at as suspect in general,
almost like you're trying to mitigate a problem that is
happening because of the false information that is spreading. If
you're upfront with it as soon as it's happening, and
(13:31):
you become the first story that is told to the
employees about what's going on from a standpoint of transparency
and vulnerability, about how it's impacting you, how it's impacting
the team, whatever that thing is, then that story is
the armor that they have to fight against the negative information.
And when they hear the negative information that is rooted
in something that is not true or it's false, they're
(13:52):
more likely to say, are you are you sure about that?
Because I heard this, you know, They're more likely to
come to the to come to the defense of the
situation because now they're trying to validate what they've been
told and kind of level check that to what they're
being what's being heard. The more you can give that
that right information out to people at the beginning, the
more likely you are to insulate the team against the
(14:14):
potential negative, incorrect, false information that fills in the gaps
when when you decide not to be transparent. Thank you
all for joining us on this discussion on employee engagement.
Join us next Thursday as we complete this conversation on
insidious causes of a decline in employee engagement that you
can focus on as leader. You have a great day,
Hey, this is christ with Hacking your leadership. On today's
discussion on employee engagement, we're continuing the topics that we
started about a month ago now on the causes of
employee engagement that might be a little bit more insidious,
not the kind of the commonly known themes of you know,
the compensation isn't high enough, or the workload is too high,
or the not enough opportunities. These are the kind of
(00:22):
the issues that might be the underlying cause of disengagement
that that might not be as obvious to you as
a leader. And if you have gone through all the
usual suspects and you have not found a way to
solve the employee engagement problems that you're having, these are
the things that you should be focusing on next to
see if this is where the problem lies. On this episode,
(00:43):
which is number five of six, we're gonna be talking
about a lack of transparency. And you know, I can
speak from personal experience and tell you that, you know,
depending on how long I've been with an organization and
how well things are going on in my personal life
and in things that are outside of work, that will
determine how much tolerance I have for a lack of transparency,
(01:08):
meaning when when when a when a leadership team or
a leader in general, or an organizations communications don't instill
a feeling of transparency with me, then my mind can
do one of two things. I can go the route
of assuming positive intent, like, oh, I don't know the answer,
but whatever it is, it must be a good one,
(01:29):
and I'm just gonna, you know, keep focusing on the
prize whatever that is, and trust that things will work out.
Or if things are not going as well and I'm
not in a positive headspace, then that lack of transparency
leads me to say things to myself like, oh, well,
you know, they're they don't know what they're doing. Or
the people who created this this strategy, they they haven't
walked a mile in my shoes. Clearly, they've never worked
(01:51):
in my role. What are they thinking? You know? These
are the stories that people tell when there's a lack
of transparency. And if you want to control that narrative,
meaning not from an insidious standpoint, but if you just
want to make sure people aren't filling in the gaps
with things that aren't true, the easiest way to do
that is to be more transparent about everything. That you
(02:14):
possibly can be transparent on and as a leader. I
think I think a lot of leaders really discount the
importance of this, not because they they are trying to
like protect people or say, oh that they don't need
to know this. I think a lot of it is
assumed that they do. I think a lot of leaders
assume that if they have access to data that somehow
(02:35):
it will trickle down to everybody else, when in a
lot of situations it doesn't unless you, as the leader
take active steps to not just trickle it down, but
to reiterate it over and over again with both the
team as a whole as well as individual people on
the team, so that the connections can be made to
the work that is being asked and what the outcomes
(02:55):
or expected results are.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah, I think it's it's such an important thing to
talk about. I love that you said, like you got
to be transparent about as much as possible, and I
think it's most things, Like I really do believe like
there there are some things that based upon the role
that you have, the responsibility that you have, the access
that you have that you're not able to share, or
that you get early. You know, like those types of
things happen. But for the most part, the transparency aspect
(03:19):
is like we're willing to talk about anything that we can.
We're willing to share when there are questions, We're willing
to to talk about things that that may be you know,
not working well. There's just just dialogue around world, Like
if you have questions, let's talk about it, or you
want perspective or you want to have dialogue. I think
(03:40):
working through and and and doing your best not to
avoid the hard conversations. I think that's the one where
transparency I think gets most tested is like when you
know that you're going to have to share something, or
when you know that the message or what you have
to land is probably not going to go overwhell. It
(04:01):
could be a change, it could be an adjustment to something.
It could be you know, a project that you've been
working on is like no longer viable for the company,
like anything like that where there has to be conversation
that can be you know, like I think that would
be pushed back on or not welcomed with, you know,
(04:21):
with with with arms wide open type of thing. That's
when we tend to like only say what we have
to say or not be fully transparent with it. I
also think when it comes to like, you know, uh,
kind of performance as a team versus performances as an individual.
There's a lot of times when it's like share over
sharing can make it seem like that these things or
(04:44):
this metric or this outcome is more important than the
values that we have for the work that we have
to do. And so like, let's not share talk about
it because we don't want to send the wrong message. Well,
the only way to send the wrong message is to
either send the wrong message or not send a message
right and let them create their own message or narrative
to your point, So like having a conversation sharing what
(05:04):
you have, letting that space be open to talk about
it is that two way communication that's necessary for people
to feel informed and evolved, but also know that there's
a space where they can come and ask questions or
express themselves when it comes to things that maybe you
are working well or not working well.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah, completely, So I like that you give an example
about giving the wrong message or no message at all. Really,
the litmus test for whether or not it's important to
share is whether or not it could possibly impact that
employees experience, regardless of what their goals are with the organization.
And so if there is a metric or a scorecard
(05:42):
that is not being shared with me, but it also
has no impact on whether or not I can get promoted,
or whether or not I can move up in the organization,
or whether or not I can be eligible for this
thing because I can't impact it with my own behaviors.
I can't impact it with influencing the team. I really
have no control over whatsoever. Then that's fine if you
don't want to share that. It's really hard to connect
(06:04):
somebody's work to something that they truly have no control over.
But if the goal is to make sure that that
the that what you're espousing on the scorecard doesn't conflict
with the with the the stated values, so you decide
to not share what that thing is one either that
means that the values that you're espousing actually don't align
(06:26):
with with the with the pushing of whatever the scorecard is,
and you should you should change how you state your values,
or you should change whether or not that scorecard matters
when it comes to people moving up within the organization,
Because if you're not talking about something with me, that
that will become important. If I want to get promoted,
then you're doing me a disservice because if I if
I want to get promoted and I have no idea
(06:48):
what the things are that are being looked at behind
the scenes, it's kind of like a oh, no, you
didn't get this job. Why did I get this job? Well,
you didn't do this and this and this well, and
I if my response is I didn't know I was
supposed to do that, not not to begin with, then
I've already been failed by my leadership team or by
my direct leader. If I don't know what those things are,
and if they've kept and if they've kept those things
(07:08):
from me because they felt like I either a couldn't
handle them or they didn't want me to think that
those things didn't align with what the values were, then
either they didn't do a good job telling the story
about how they do align, or they don't align, and
one of those two things needs to change. But either way,
that lack of transparency just leads to a terrible employee
(07:29):
experience eventually, or it leads to employees telling the wrong
story in their own head because of the lack of
information that you're giving them. I want to go over
some of things you can do as a leader to
kind of make sure that you aren't falling into this
trap that you're giving people the information they need without
necessarily oversharing or things that aren't necessary to do their job,
(07:50):
or things that you really shouldn't be sharing. But first,
let's give it up toward for one of our sponsors.
All right, if you're a leader of people, as Lorenzo
said earlier, there are really very few things that you
shouldn't be sharing when it comes to performance management or
disciplinary action for another employee that's not another employees business.
That's between you and that other employee. When it comes
(08:11):
to you know, things that if you if you're a
fiduciary of your organization, meaning you've been given information that
that that restricts how you how you trade stock within
your organization, then that information you shouldn't be sharing with
people that aren't entrusted with that fiduciary duty. Outside of
those things, there really isn't much that you can't share,
especially if asked by by an employee. But to start,
(08:35):
look at all the things that would be necessary for
an employee to move up within an organization if they
want to get promoted, or if they want to be
eligible for job opportunities, or leadership opportunities, or or stretch assignments,
whatever that may be. Anything that you know will be
necessary to make a person qualified for and successful at
that is something you should preemptively be sharing with that person,
(08:59):
because not sharing with them will set them up for
failure when it comes to that journey. And then in
the course of action with other employees, share those things
with them too, and see which ones of them kind
of gravitate towards it, grab on to it and want
to know more about it. Just putting yourself out there
as a place that employees can go to find this information,
and then sharing high level things with people as much
(09:20):
as you can will allow people to kind of self
select into what they want. Because some people who don't
want to move up and who don't want to get promoted,
maybe they don't want to go as granular as some
of the people who do want to get moved up.
But it's still important that they know how their successes
impact the business. It's still important to know that, hey,
you know, as a team, we did this, and look
how many people got promoted this year. As a team,
(09:41):
we did this, and look how many people we were
able to hire this year. Those are the positive things
that can allow a person to say, Okay, all this
talk we've had about the behaviors that I should be
doing and the way I should be interacting with my
clients or my customers, there's a reason for all that,
And this is the fruits of that labor, which is
that now there's more people on the team, there's more promotions,
there's more doors being opened, and maybe now I want
(10:03):
to get in to be a part of that, or
maybe I don't, but at least I can connect the dots. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
I think it's that level of communication and sharing what's
going on in real time and continuing to give updates
on whether to your point, it's like promotions or business
outcomes or completion of projects or impact that you're having
on whatever you measure, but like the constant elements of
(10:30):
making sure people are up to speed, they're up to date,
they feel that they are not only a part of
something bigger, but that what's being measured is something that
is you know that they're a part of doing and
can feel celebrated about. I think those are big pieces
of it. I think though for me, it's always gonna
come back down to that element of like when it's
(10:53):
a tough conversation, or when it's something that is a disagreement,
or when there's a decision that was made it's having
a potential negative impact, Like those are the moments to
me that transparency means the most. I think you need
to have it all the time. So I love that
you brought up examples where it's like, these are ways
that you should constantly be transparent about what's going on
(11:13):
and what's happening around us at all times. And that
allows you then to create the space so that when
something is needed to be addressed, it's not out of place.
It's not like, Okay, well wait a minute, why is
Chris all of a sudden now wanted to talk about
something about, you know, an outcome or a business thing
or a decision when he never ever really does that,
Like it feels weird now versus no, Chris always does this.
(11:37):
It's just this time it's something that we need to
talk a little bit more about, or that we may
have more feelings about that type of thing. So again,
I think that that's the biggest part of it is
it has to happen consistently with all of the things
that are going on, so that when you do have
kind of a major one where you have to explain
the why or talk through a concern, that you've kind
(11:59):
of got this foundation built up of how you navigate
with your team and how much you share with your team.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Right, and you have to keep in mind too. I
think this is I think a lot of the reasons
why a leader may hesitate to share or be transparent
when it comes to those tough conversations. I think a
lot of leaders don't realize that the lack of information
from them doesn't mean a lack of information. It means
a lack of true information. Because the employees that you're
(12:27):
avoiding having these conversations with, it's not that they're going
through their life blind to what's going on and everything's fine.
They're going through their day hearing things that aren't true
or only partially true from other people who have heard
about certain things, like information is being shared when it's
not being shared by you, it means that it's not
(12:47):
just that they don't have information, it's that they potentially
have wrong information, and that can lead to significantly more
problems when it comes to employee engagement than if you
just took the time to be real with an employee
and share with them. And it is super important to
do this as early as you can, because if it's
viewed is that you're doing it in reaction to negative
(13:08):
false information that they have about a process or something
that's coming down, and now you're stepping in weeks or
months later to give them the true information you're going
to that information will be looked at as suspect in general,
almost like you're trying to mitigate a problem that is
happening because of the false information that is spreading. If
you're upfront with it as soon as it's happening, and
(13:31):
you become the first story that is told to the
employees about what's going on from a standpoint of transparency
and vulnerability, about how it's impacting you, how it's impacting
the team, whatever that thing is, then that story is
the armor that they have to fight against the negative information.
And when they hear the negative information that is rooted
in something that is not true or it's false, they're
(13:52):
more likely to say, are you are you sure about that?
Because I heard this, you know, They're more likely to
come to the to come to the defense of the
situation because now they're trying to validate what they've been
told and kind of level check that to what they're
being what's being heard. The more you can give that
that right information out to people at the beginning, the
more likely you are to insulate the team against the
(14:14):
potential negative, incorrect, false information that fills in the gaps
when when you decide not to be transparent. Thank you
all for joining us on this discussion on employee engagement.
Join us next Thursday as we complete this conversation on
insidious causes of a decline in employee engagement that you
can focus on as leader. You have a great day,
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