July 10, 2025 • 11 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 ackting your leadership. On today's
discussion on employee engagement, we're continuing the discussion that we
started several weeks ago on kind of lesser known or
insidious causes of a low employee engagement or low kind
of productivity with employees that can't be really associated with
the usual suspects like compensation or you know, work environment.
(00:23):
But these are kind of smaller things, but they can
have a big impact. If you haven't joined us for
the previous episodes, go back and listen to them that
they are really great discussions. Last week, we discussed what
happens when employees feel like they have a lack of
reward and recognition. On this episode, we're going to talk
about what happens when employees feel unheard. And you know,
(00:44):
this is very broad, right because I think what an
employee defines as unheard is different from person to person.
You know, there are some people who want this, you know,
kind of constant check in with their leader or with
other people. They they they are constantly wanting to engage
and interact with their boss or their boss's boss, or
(01:07):
the organization as a whole. Theer they're incredibly bought in
from a mindset standpoint, and and that comes out in
wanting to participate, wanting to contribute, wanting to make things better,
And and the level of feeling heard that is expected
from a person like that might might be much higher
(01:27):
than a person who is, you know, there to just
get a job done and you know, go on with
the rest of their life and they're not looking to
move up or looking to contribute. They do find work,
but they're they're not, you know, actively trying to engage
or participate on a on a higher level. The type
of of kind of validation or or how much that
employee needs to be heard might be a little bit
(01:48):
less than than that the first employee was describing. So uh,
this is incumbent upon leaders to figure out what each
of their employees needs in how to make them feel heard.
Because this cannot be defined by the leader. Each person
gets to define it for themselves.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, and I think too, in the context of this article,
it's important to kind of call out that like this,
this whole thing is around ideas to boost business performance
right right, because again there's the idea of like not
being heard with my opinions of anything. Sure, and nobody's
listening versus I have ideas to help us become better.
And and I call that out because you could definitely
(02:26):
there's a lot of overlap there in like ideas and
thoughts around how to boost a business performance along with
how people feel heard when it comes to maybe their
experience and their perspectives and things that they're looking for.
And I think for me, it always comes down to
like the taking of action, like it like when when
(02:48):
when I hear like people want to feel heard, it's
usually that they have an idea, they have a thought,
they have a perspective, and they're looking for somebody not
just to like listen to it, but actually do something
with it. And I think sometimes in my experience, people
have been Okay, if I come back and say, hey,
here's what I've got, here's what was discussed, here's what's
going on. This is not something that we would necessarily do,
(03:09):
and here's why, Or here's kind of what we've got
that is similar to that and may provide us with
the same you know, option that you're thinking of, and
or it's a great idea, here's what it would require
to bring that idea to life, And it's not that
it's a no, but it's like there's more work that
we'd have to do here. So again, just the act
(03:31):
of taking thoughts, ideas, perspectives, having dialogue about them, and
then taking what you can and implementing that into some
type of a strategy. I think for a lot of people,
that's what I that's what I hear when it comes
to like people feeling unheard, is like, have you done
anything with what I'm sharing?
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Right? For sure, there's there's this element of you know,
just you know, speaking as a as a consultant who
works with organizations, there have been times where I've worked
with a leader within an organization to build something out,
a tool or a process to kind of you know,
help streamline their business, or to make the talent selection
process better, you know, something like that, and it works
(04:09):
really really well. And then someone else in the organization
will see the results of that and they'll come back
and say I want something too, And the very first
thing that I'll do is I'll say, okay, I'll respond
back with some questions that require some thought and input
around the things that they're looking to get done, and
(04:29):
how they reply to those questions will tell me everything
I need to know about whether or not this is
something they just want me to do for them, or
if it's something they're bought into actually making happen because
they're bought into the idea of it, and they really
want to, you know, be a participant in this process,
not just have it done for them, because a lot
of leaders just want the results that come from something
(04:52):
without you know, putting some individualized culture into it based
on what the needs of their individual team is. They
just they're hoping that something that was that works for
another team will work for their team, and oftentimes that's
not the case, and so it requires a little bit
of due diligence. But I can see the level of
buying and engagement they have with just those basic interactions
(05:13):
and when employees want to feel heard, it's it's really
similar to this if a if a person is giving
me an idea of something something to boost business performance
or outcomes, and I start asking questions around what thought
they've put into it, like kind of pushing back a
little bit, not from a standpoint of you know, kind
of crapping all over their idea, but but genuine curiosity
(05:35):
about what have they thought through? Not I thought this
through and you haven't let me school you on it.
But that's I love where you're going with that, Like, like,
these are some of the questions that I'd want to know,
you know, to to kind of inform the decision and
see whether they thought those things through, because at the
very least, even if they haven't thought them through, they
(05:56):
might think them through because of that conversation and come
to the realization that their idea needs to change or
isn't good, or if they haven't thought them through, you
never know whether an idea is whimsical, right, Like, they
just thought about it in the moment based on a
pain point they were experiencing in that moment, with one
particular interaction with a client or a customer or a process,
and that kind of pain point led them to want
(06:17):
to revamp the entire thing, whatever that looks like, and
start from scratch. And oftentimes those things have been thought
through by other people, and just getting a person to
a place where they're thinking through them on their own
can at least kind of strengthen that muscle where it's
likely that the things that they come to you within
the future might be more thought out, but it might
take a few interactions of getting them to do that
(06:39):
process before it gets there. If you're a leader of people,
I want to go over some of the things you
can do with your employees that will allow you to
make sure that your employees feel heard, even if you
don't necessarily have the ability to say, yeah, whatever your
ideas are, let's put them into action right now, because
you might not have the authority to do it, or
they might not be great ideas. So let's go over
(06:59):
those things. But first let's up toward form of our sponsors.
All right, If you're a leader of people, anytime an
employee comes to you with an idea to boost business performance,
you don't want them to lose what they had in them,
that fire in them, that led them to do that
to begin with, because just the idea that they're bringing
to you means they are bought in to boosting business performance.
(07:20):
They want it to get better, They want themselves to
get better, the organization to get better. You don't want
to lose that, and it's very quick to do that
if you don't validate that process of them coming to you.
It doesn't require you put the plan into action, but
it does require some follow up. It does require some
question and answers, And it does require some genuine homework
on your part as a leader to take the information
(07:41):
that the employee's given you and to do some due
diligence on the reasons why it wouldn't work or maybe
what's happening in the background on the same thing already,
and get back to the employee on the whys behind it.
An employee doesn't need to have their idea put into
place in order to feel heard, but they need to
be validated at the process of bringing it to you.
And if it's not a good idea or when the
(08:03):
organization or the team can't do they don't have a
very specific reason as to why that they can buy
into and agree with. They could go, oh, I totally
see that, why that we would go forward with that,
not just something like no, we just don't want to
do it right now. You have to give them more
information and then that you won't lose what they brought
with them that might lead them to bring a better
(08:24):
idea in the future.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, I think it's a great point. Like you want
people to have that energy, You want people to be
able to provide ideas and insights, and you want people
to push back on things sometimes where it's not going
maybe the way that you planned or a strategy may
have some opportunities, Like you want the dialogue, you want
people involved in all of these types of things, and
I think that to keep them in that space, like
(08:48):
you're spot on, you've got to be able to come
back to them with something, And even if it's an
explanation or even if it's perspective, or even if it's
something where I can tell you right now like the
answer to that is no, and I can tell you
why it would you know, let's walk through that. But
it's not a bad idea and theory. I hear what
you're saying, but like, let me give you some thoughts
or perspective or maybe let me let's talk through that
(09:08):
a little bit more. And helping them to connect some
of those types of dots, because again that's really important.
And then thanking them like that's one of the things
as well, but I think is super important. It's like well, first,
like first, like thanks for the idea, Like I think
that's a big piece of what we need in our
culture and our environment. I want to hear more about that.
And even if this isn't the one that goes anywhere.
We need more of those, right, and helping people to
(09:31):
feel confident and appreciate it for their time and for
their effort of thinking or sharing their ideas, I think
is absolutely critical.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, I think that's spot on. The other thing too
that you brought up and I really like, is this
The idea of feeling heard or unheard can come down
to simply whether or not you validate their pain point.
So if they come up with an idea, it's to
solve something that they're having a problem with, and that
thing may already be solved by something else that they
don't that they're not aware of, or it may not.
(10:00):
But even if it's not a great idea, just validating
that the problem they experience and the pain point or
the hurdle they experienced is a valid hurdle that it
would frustrate you too. Sometimes that can be enough. The
last thing I want touch on this, because I think
it's really important, is you know, the article mentions having
a way of giving anonymous feedback so that people can
feel heard, because if it's certain subjects, some people might
(10:23):
feel comfortable coming to you or saying something out loud
that the anonymous thing might be better. It's very important to
have these things, but it's also very important to categorize
or to classify them verbally with employees as saying, just
so you know, there are things that we cannot do
based on things that you tell us anonymously. There are
that you might bring up of a problem that you're
(10:44):
having with another employee or with a leader, or with
a process in general, and if we have no way
of coming back to you and kind of talking with
you out about this, then something may not be able
to be done by it. So just because you can
give us the feedback anonymously or give us the pain
point anonymously, doesn't necessarily mean something's going to be heard.
So at least they go into it with that knowledge
(11:05):
and they're not expecting, oh, I can just leave this
tip anonymously and my problems are going to be solved.
Make sure that they have that caveat with them so
they don't come in with more expectations than what you're
capable of doing. Thank you for joining us on this
discussion and employee engagement. We'll see you next Thursday for
the next one. You have a great day.
Hey, this is christ with ackting your leadership. On today's
discussion on employee engagement, we're continuing the discussion that we
started several weeks ago on kind of lesser known or
insidious causes of a low employee engagement or low kind
of productivity with employees that can't be really associated with
the usual suspects like compensation or you know, work environment.
(00:23):
But these are kind of smaller things, but they can
have a big impact. If you haven't joined us for
the previous episodes, go back and listen to them that
they are really great discussions. Last week, we discussed what
happens when employees feel like they have a lack of
reward and recognition. On this episode, we're going to talk
about what happens when employees feel unheard. And you know,
(00:44):
this is very broad, right because I think what an
employee defines as unheard is different from person to person.
You know, there are some people who want this, you know,
kind of constant check in with their leader or with
other people. They they they are constantly wanting to engage
and interact with their boss or their boss's boss, or
(01:07):
the organization as a whole. Theer they're incredibly bought in
from a mindset standpoint, and and that comes out in
wanting to participate, wanting to contribute, wanting to make things better,
And and the level of feeling heard that is expected
from a person like that might might be much higher
(01:27):
than a person who is, you know, there to just
get a job done and you know, go on with
the rest of their life and they're not looking to
move up or looking to contribute. They do find work,
but they're they're not, you know, actively trying to engage
or participate on a on a higher level. The type
of of kind of validation or or how much that
employee needs to be heard might be a little bit
(01:48):
less than than that the first employee was describing. So uh,
this is incumbent upon leaders to figure out what each
of their employees needs in how to make them feel heard.
Because this cannot be defined by the leader. Each person
gets to define it for themselves.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, and I think too, in the context of this article,
it's important to kind of call out that like this,
this whole thing is around ideas to boost business performance
right right, because again there's the idea of like not
being heard with my opinions of anything. Sure, and nobody's
listening versus I have ideas to help us become better.
And and I call that out because you could definitely
(02:26):
there's a lot of overlap there in like ideas and
thoughts around how to boost a business performance along with
how people feel heard when it comes to maybe their
experience and their perspectives and things that they're looking for.
And I think for me, it always comes down to
like the taking of action, like it like when when
(02:48):
when I hear like people want to feel heard, it's
usually that they have an idea, they have a thought,
they have a perspective, and they're looking for somebody not
just to like listen to it, but actually do something
with it. And I think sometimes in my experience, people
have been Okay, if I come back and say, hey,
here's what I've got, here's what was discussed, here's what's
going on. This is not something that we would necessarily do,
(03:09):
and here's why, Or here's kind of what we've got
that is similar to that and may provide us with
the same you know, option that you're thinking of, and
or it's a great idea, here's what it would require
to bring that idea to life, And it's not that
it's a no, but it's like there's more work that
we'd have to do here. So again, just the act
(03:31):
of taking thoughts, ideas, perspectives, having dialogue about them, and
then taking what you can and implementing that into some
type of a strategy. I think for a lot of people,
that's what I that's what I hear when it comes
to like people feeling unheard, is like, have you done
anything with what I'm sharing?
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Right? For sure, there's there's this element of you know,
just you know, speaking as a as a consultant who
works with organizations, there have been times where I've worked
with a leader within an organization to build something out,
a tool or a process to kind of you know,
help streamline their business, or to make the talent selection
process better, you know, something like that, and it works
(04:09):
really really well. And then someone else in the organization
will see the results of that and they'll come back
and say I want something too, And the very first
thing that I'll do is I'll say, okay, I'll respond
back with some questions that require some thought and input
around the things that they're looking to get done, and
(04:29):
how they reply to those questions will tell me everything
I need to know about whether or not this is
something they just want me to do for them, or
if it's something they're bought into actually making happen because
they're bought into the idea of it, and they really
want to, you know, be a participant in this process,
not just have it done for them, because a lot
of leaders just want the results that come from something
(04:52):
without you know, putting some individualized culture into it based
on what the needs of their individual team is. They
just they're hoping that something that was that works for
another team will work for their team, and oftentimes that's
not the case, and so it requires a little bit
of due diligence. But I can see the level of
buying and engagement they have with just those basic interactions
(05:13):
and when employees want to feel heard, it's it's really
similar to this if a if a person is giving
me an idea of something something to boost business performance
or outcomes, and I start asking questions around what thought
they've put into it, like kind of pushing back a
little bit, not from a standpoint of you know, kind
of crapping all over their idea, but but genuine curiosity
(05:35):
about what have they thought through? Not I thought this
through and you haven't let me school you on it.
But that's I love where you're going with that, Like, like,
these are some of the questions that I'd want to know,
you know, to to kind of inform the decision and
see whether they thought those things through, because at the
very least, even if they haven't thought them through, they
(05:56):
might think them through because of that conversation and come
to the realization that their idea needs to change or
isn't good, or if they haven't thought them through, you
never know whether an idea is whimsical, right, Like, they
just thought about it in the moment based on a
pain point they were experiencing in that moment, with one
particular interaction with a client or a customer or a process,
and that kind of pain point led them to want
(06:17):
to revamp the entire thing, whatever that looks like, and
start from scratch. And oftentimes those things have been thought
through by other people, and just getting a person to
a place where they're thinking through them on their own
can at least kind of strengthen that muscle where it's
likely that the things that they come to you within
the future might be more thought out, but it might
take a few interactions of getting them to do that
(06:39):
process before it gets there. If you're a leader of people,
I want to go over some of the things you
can do with your employees that will allow you to
make sure that your employees feel heard, even if you
don't necessarily have the ability to say, yeah, whatever your
ideas are, let's put them into action right now, because
you might not have the authority to do it, or
they might not be great ideas. So let's go over
(06:59):
those things. But first let's up toward form of our sponsors.
All right, If you're a leader of people, anytime an
employee comes to you with an idea to boost business performance,
you don't want them to lose what they had in them,
that fire in them, that led them to do that
to begin with, because just the idea that they're bringing
to you means they are bought in to boosting business performance.
(07:20):
They want it to get better, They want themselves to
get better, the organization to get better. You don't want
to lose that, and it's very quick to do that
if you don't validate that process of them coming to you.
It doesn't require you put the plan into action, but
it does require some follow up. It does require some
question and answers, And it does require some genuine homework
on your part as a leader to take the information
(07:41):
that the employee's given you and to do some due
diligence on the reasons why it wouldn't work or maybe
what's happening in the background on the same thing already,
and get back to the employee on the whys behind it.
An employee doesn't need to have their idea put into
place in order to feel heard, but they need to
be validated at the process of bringing it to you.
And if it's not a good idea or when the
(08:03):
organization or the team can't do they don't have a
very specific reason as to why that they can buy
into and agree with. They could go, oh, I totally
see that, why that we would go forward with that,
not just something like no, we just don't want to
do it right now. You have to give them more
information and then that you won't lose what they brought
with them that might lead them to bring a better
(08:24):
idea in the future.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, I think it's a great point. Like you want
people to have that energy, You want people to be
able to provide ideas and insights, and you want people
to push back on things sometimes where it's not going
maybe the way that you planned or a strategy may
have some opportunities, Like you want the dialogue, you want
people involved in all of these types of things, and
I think that to keep them in that space, like
(08:48):
you're spot on, you've got to be able to come
back to them with something, And even if it's an
explanation or even if it's perspective, or even if it's
something where I can tell you right now like the
answer to that is no, and I can tell you
why it would you know, let's walk through that. But
it's not a bad idea and theory. I hear what
you're saying, but like, let me give you some thoughts
or perspective or maybe let me let's talk through that
(09:08):
a little bit more. And helping them to connect some
of those types of dots, because again that's really important.
And then thanking them like that's one of the things
as well, but I think is super important. It's like well, first,
like first, like thanks for the idea, Like I think
that's a big piece of what we need in our
culture and our environment. I want to hear more about that.
And even if this isn't the one that goes anywhere.
We need more of those, right, and helping people to
(09:31):
feel confident and appreciate it for their time and for
their effort of thinking or sharing their ideas, I think
is absolutely critical.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, I think that's spot on. The other thing too
that you brought up and I really like, is this
The idea of feeling heard or unheard can come down
to simply whether or not you validate their pain point.
So if they come up with an idea, it's to
solve something that they're having a problem with, and that
thing may already be solved by something else that they
don't that they're not aware of, or it may not.
(10:00):
But even if it's not a great idea, just validating
that the problem they experience and the pain point or
the hurdle they experienced is a valid hurdle that it
would frustrate you too. Sometimes that can be enough. The
last thing I want touch on this, because I think
it's really important, is you know, the article mentions having
a way of giving anonymous feedback so that people can
feel heard, because if it's certain subjects, some people might
(10:23):
feel comfortable coming to you or saying something out loud
that the anonymous thing might be better. It's very important to
have these things, but it's also very important to categorize
or to classify them verbally with employees as saying, just
so you know, there are things that we cannot do
based on things that you tell us anonymously. There are
that you might bring up of a problem that you're
(10:44):
having with another employee or with a leader, or with
a process in general, and if we have no way
of coming back to you and kind of talking with
you out about this, then something may not be able
to be done by it. So just because you can
give us the feedback anonymously or give us the pain
point anonymously, doesn't necessarily mean something's going to be heard.
So at least they go into it with that knowledge
(11:05):
and they're not expecting, oh, I can just leave this
tip anonymously and my problems are going to be solved.
Make sure that they have that caveat with them so
they don't come in with more expectations than what you're
capable of doing. Thank you for joining us on this
discussion and employee engagement. We'll see you next Thursday for
the next one. You have a great day.
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