The power of checking-in with your people
5 min read
Recently, we were introduced to a beautiful team. They all got along so well. When you entered the room, you could feel the mutual respect. People were visibly happy and deep in discussion. There was collaboration, problem-solving, and vigorous debate – even quieter individuals would be roped into sharing their opinions – demonstrating a level of psychological safety and a strong shared purpose in their work.
They were a high performing team. In their last performance cycle, they had achieved the highest KPI on record for their industry. They had doubled their performance from the previous year, demonstrating high capability, high standards and quality outputs.
They had strong staff engagement and felt supported by their leaders. When we dug into engagement scores, they had improved year-on-year and in some areas sat at 100% positive response rates. These results reinforced what was visible – happy people, mutual respect and a shared purpose.
Even when your metrics demonstrate strong strategic performance, there are still inherent risks that every leader must manage.
Organisations today are, without a doubt, improving their performance metrics – moving beyond the balance sheet to include other KPIs such as employee engagement. There are innumerable software platforms available to help organisations receive qualitative feedback, hear employee voice, and gain actionable insights. However, as with any software application, there will always be a human element that a tool simply cannot solve for.
Our client was concerned about future burnout. There were warning signs indicating the team were working long hours and pushing physical and mental limits – hints of reduced optimism and external locus of control. Given that their leader genuinely cared about the team’s wellbeing, they decided to invest in organisational effectiveness strategies that would address potential burnout.
Work is increasingly making people unwell.
As an employer, there’s a reason to be concerned about burnout. Burnout is defined as a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. In the workplace, it can reduce an employee’s productivity and sap their energy. Feelings of apathy, hopelessness and cynicism will often show up and may have broader consequences to company culture. By the time these feelings are evident it’s too late and burnout is present – highlighting the importance of leaders detecting early warning signals.
Recent findings in the 2023 State of the Future of Work Report reveal work is making many Australians unwell. Employees aged 18-54 reported poorer physical and mental health compared to pre-pandemic. Alarmingly, one-in-three are considering quitting their job.
The idea of burnout is not a new concept. My father-in-law regularly reminisces about his time in the workforce. As a teacher in the 70s and 80s, he described intensive days that started at 8am and would see him home by 5pm to have dinner with his family. He would then finish his day marking papers or preparing lessons until 10 or 11pm at night. But it was all ok, because when school holidays came around, he disappeared – taking his family to the shack (a rural block in the middle of no-where) and removing himself from the work environment for 2-6 weeks at a time. It was his ‘escape from the grind’ where he spent time refuelling in preparation for the next 10-week stint.
Today, we have the intensive work life. But are we taking the time to refuel?
A recent ELMO study reveals that three-out-of-four Australian employees have avoided taking leave due to factors such as rising costs and workloads. And it’s not a new trend, with Roy Morgan Research showing that pre-pandemic, Australian’s Total Annual Leave Accrued was rising, reaching the highest it had been in 8 years.
The modern leadership challenge – knowing a problem exists, despite strong data telling you it doesn’t.
Fortunately, our client was a contemporary leader. Despite strong performance metrics, they regularly checked-in with their people which helped to reveal signs of fatigue and the labour-consequence of high performance. While our client didn’t know the solution, they knew if the team could operate more effectively it would be a step in the right direction – and by taking action, the team felt heard.
The power of checking-in
If you want to stay abreast of your operations, checking-in with your direct reports every week will be the most important thing you can do.
Research shows checking-in weekly with employees enhances employee engagement, and this rings true across various industries including professional services, tech and health care.
Such a small and regular action will have significant benefits, including:
It will create regular two-way communication enabling you to manage performance and provide clear and timely feedback;
It will grow your understanding of each team members strengths and increase your empathy towards them; and
If done well, it will create and maintain the psychological safety required to ensure your team inform you of preventable or complex failures, and risks such as burnout.
When checking-in with your employees, make sure you cover these three critical elements:
Routine: It is essential to create and maintain the habit of checking-in each week spending as little as 15mins with every direct report
Open questions: Try simple, open questions that require little preparation, such as “What are you working on this week? How can I help?”
Model vulnerability: To encourage and grow psychological safety in your team, as the leader, you will need to go first. As Amy Edmondson says, be a “don’t knower” and own your mistakes, modelling that it is ok to express contrary ideas and take risks.
If you would like to learn more about how Simple Nimble can help your organisation improve its strategic and organisational effectiveness, get in touch today!
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