- When teammates approach you with a concern, how do you react?
- Do you listen? Do you acknowledge? Do you dismiss or say things to diminish the reality?
- What does your acknowledgment look like?
Let’s take a step back and ask some fundamental questions:
- Do people come to you with their concerns?
- Do you have a goal of being (or becoming) an approachable leader to whom people feel comfortable bringing their opinions, fears, frustrations, and suggestions?
- Why does this even matter?
People are the heart of your organization. If you win business initiatives, but have no people to carry out the work, your company will perish. Your organization depends on people. If you do not listen to your people, or ignore the realities that they bring to your attention, your company will find itself in difficult times. Being approachable, inviting people to share their thoughts, and then practicing the art of acknowledging, is critical to the survival and growth of your team.
Management Funk occurs when leadership is disconnected from those doing the work. Whose responsibility is it to ensure a connection exists? Is it management’s job to pursue and discover what people are thinking? Or does the responsibility lie with those who have something to say? Making the effort to seek out an employee’s opinion and taking them seriously signals that you consider them important. Aim to be an approachable manager as well as one who pursues the opinions of your employees.
Make yourself present and visible. In the COVID-era, strong leaders turn their webcam on, letting their team see their presence, without requiring others to do the same. Open your Zoom link two minutes before the meeting starts. Do so consistently, for all of your meetings. A leader who does this sends a powerful message about their commitment to being reliable. Make yourself available despite your full calendar. Prioritize the people. Do not simply rely on the skills they bring to work, but also rely on what they are trying to tell you. Use active listening to make sure you hear what they are saying about the project/program/company.
Listening
Are you trying to comprehend what people are telling you? Consider that it takes courage for someone to approach a leader with their concern. The fact that they have approached you is significant. Many people will have thoughts about the workplace funk but will simply not bring the topic(s) forward to management. So if someone does approach you, listen very intently. It could very well represent what others are thinking or seeing, but this individual has the boldness to tell you. Or it could be that this individual truly desires to see the company succeed, so they are approaching you to raise a flag of concern, to share their thoughts as a signal of their deep commitment to your company. You need people to come to you; they have a pulse on what’s happening that you may not have a window into, or you’re too busy to see. If you dismiss what these individuals tell you, or bury your head in the sand rather than face the problem, then you run a very high risk of demoralizing the very people who are valiantly trying to help your company succeed. When workplace funk exists and you dismiss the message these courageous people bring you, a different problem will arise called “Eyeing the Door Funk”. Your job is to inspire; to create an atmosphere where people desire to apply themselves. Please don’t demoralize the very people who care enough to come share their concerns with you. Instead, rely on them and give credence to what they’ve shared.
Your job is to inspire; to create an atmosphere where people desire to apply themselves.
If someone raises a concern, listen. Try to completely absorb what is being said, being fully present in the moment, focusing your attention on what is being shared with you. This is your opportunity! Focus your attention to fully comprehend what is being revealed to you.
Sure, it would be great if it was a simple problem requiring a simple solution. Chances are pretty high, though, that you’ve just been given insight into a complex problem without an easy solution. Now more than ever you may feel the temptation to bury your head in the sand and hope it just goes away. Or to distract yourself with all the pressing demands of your calendar and other business goals. This is the time to be a fighter; to fight through the feeling that this is too big of a problem to tackle, or too complicated. It’s about taking one step at a time, putting one foot in front of the other. Attack the problem, perform a root cause analysis (as needed) and move into swift action to generate possible solutions. Your people will lose hope otherwise. They want to work for a manager who listens and follows up. Your people need to see your capacity to weather any storm. This is not the time to deny reality or to leave the person feeling that it’s not really a big deal. This is not the time to simply give a pretense that all is well, or make promises without action.
Instead, this is the time to acknowledge and confront the issues staring you in the face. Do not look the other way. Tackle the issues head on. And do so now. There is no time to waste; you have the power to instill hope and appreciation in your team by the way you respond. You have the power to prevent workplace funk. If you can’t or won’t address the problems, do you know what will happen? Those very people who care so deeply, and were courageous enough to come tell you about the problems, will become exasperated.
Effective leaders are intentional about being approachable, listening, and then acting upon what they hear. But it’s an art. Knowing how to acknowledge, letting people truly feel heard, while simultaneously striking a balance with the full reality of what you/the company are facing. Important questions to ask yourself:
- Am I causing Management Funk to fester?
- Am I contributing to a sour/toxic/funky work environment?
Hopefully not. Instead, may you be the type of leader who engages in the art of acknowledging what truly is at hand, and faces reality with commitment and urgency.
Aim to be approachable. Acknowledge what people bring to your attention.
Now go resolve what they’ve revealed to you.
