If You Want Suggestions, Act Like You Mean It
So you have decided to get input from your employees on how to improve your company’s operations. You call everyone in to the conference room and ask for opinions. Do your employees give you useful suggestions, or any suggestions at all? Do they even believe that you actually want to hear what they have to say?
The answer depends on how you act during the meeting. Do you come in with nothing more than a cup of coffee? When people offer an idea or advice do you quickly rebut what they say, explaining why their idea won’t work? Through the way you respond, are you conveying the impression that you think you know more than anyone else and you aren’t really interested in what they have to say? After all, you are the one managing the company, so how can someone at a lower level have a useful idea?
If you ask a question, but then argue about the answer, soon no one will answer you. It’s simple human nature: if an action consistently produces negative results, we simply stop doing that action.
Let your actions show that you are really interested in what people have to say. Come in to the meeting prepared with a pad of paper and a pen so you can write down ideas. Ask probing questions so you can truly understand why someone is making a suggestion. If it is your opinion that an idea won’t work, don’t just say “it won’t work” or “I’ve already tried that.” Instead, take a collaborative approach; explain why it hasn’t worked or what the problem is, then ask if anyone has ideas on how to solve it.
Just because your employees don’t have your macro perspective does not mean that they won’t have good ideas. They are, after all, on the front line every day. They see and hear things that you do not. It is possible that they see a way to make one small change in how you operate that will produce significant results.
The effectiveness of your communication process is critical to the success of your company. In the end, as the manager or owner, it is up to you to ensure that the process works correctly; you must ensure that employees understand what is expected of them. You make your thoughts known through your actions; if your directives aren’t followed, employees are disciplined or terminated. Just remember that employees make their thoughts known through their actions as well, and you can’t ignore them. If you don’t listen to what they have to say, they eventually make their point through reduced performance or by quitting.
