The high cost of not listening to your team

Your staff knows stuff. They hate it when you don’t ask. When you don’t ask for their input, they assume you don’t care, so they stop caring. The good people leave in frustration and the mediocre people stay and take ‘I don’t give a-damn pills.’ Either way, the cost is huge.

When we listen to our team, two wonderful things happen. We learn from them and we honour them. Conversely, when we don’t listen to them, two things also happen. We do not learn from them and we dishonor them. Recent research shows that not being listened to affects employees’ mental health and overall sense of well-being. So, there’s a personal cost here, too.

Even in a small business – and with a few exceptions that includes most independent furniture, mattress and major appliance stores – the front-line people often have a better understanding of how customers really feel, where time and money is being wasted and what needs fixing, than does the boss. Why would the store owner not listen to these people?

So, encourage their feedback, observations and ideas at any time. Then, create a quarterly Idea Fest where each employee is responsible for bringing one idea on how to serve customers better, increase sales, operate more efficiently, communicate more effectively, improve safety, be a better place to work, be more environmentally responsible, or be a better neighbour.

At the next session, report back to the team what has been done with their ideas and reward those that have made a difference. If certain ideas cannot be implemented at this time, explain why. You will be absolutely amazed at the change in morale and engagement when you listen.

On this same subject…

You can’t grow your business without growing your people – and without growing yourself. The owners and leaders in most businesses generally accept that the people on our team need to learn and grow but often believe that we, ourselves, are a perfect finished piece of work, just as we are now. Not so.

So, as you put the finishing touches on your 2016 staff training, mentoring and coaching plan, what is your own training and development plan? What do you need to know more about or be better at doing to run your business or department as it is now and as it will be in the next few years? Who should be coaching you?

There’s something to think about.