the shocking truth about employee surveys

The employees sense this as disinterest and disrespect. And they get disengaged.

Then, the leaders sense the disengagement, They hold management meetings where everyone wrings their hands. “Why don’t our employees bring us their A-Game?”

They discover that employee surveys is a ‘best practice’ at many, many companies.

“Aha!” they heave a sigh of relief, “Finally! We can get some answers.”

But what they don’t understand is the survey sends a clear signal to the employees: “We are clueless about you.” And “We need you to bring your A-Game and that’s why we need you to answer this survey.”

Previously, the employees suspected this. Now, they know for sure it’s true. Their worst suspicions have been confirmed. And the employees get even more disengaged.

It gets worse.

A vicious cycle.

The sad thing is most leaders are not aware of this vicious cycle. They are not aware that they are the reason their employees are disengaged. So, let me spell it out —

Yes, there’s a very scary, overall, two-decade downward trend in engagement. But … If your employees are disengaged, it has nothing to do with this trend. It has everything to do with … the leaders.

The leaders are the problem. Increasingly, leaders everywhere have become mentally lazy. That’s the really scary long-term trend. Very few are talking about it. Even fewer are doing something about it.

And it’s painful to watch.

Why mental laziness is your company’s biggest problem

Leaders who are mentally lazy cultivate organizations that are mentally lazy.

Mental laziness is at the root of most organizational problems — such as high turnover, poor innovation, poor leadership, poor teamwork, poor performance and pretty much everything else, including poor engagement.

If you have any of these problems, you can be sure it begins with mental laziness at the leadership level.

You must solve the problem at its root. Solving it at any other level is a sign of mental laziness. See? There’s no escaping this. You must confront it. Otherwise, you’ll keep going around in circles.

This is how engagement soars

So what about all those companies where employee engagement surveys actually make things better?

They don’t tell you the whole story.

Their employees are engaged not because they take employee surveys, but specifically because their leadership is alert and vested in their employees. Their employees feel respected. They sense their leaders want what’s best for them. They see their leaders investing time in their growth. They get engaged — inevitably.

When invited to take a survey, the employees see it as one more sign that their leaders want to be alert to them. And engagement improves.

A virtuous cycle.

The employee survey is just a small piece of their approach — it is nowhere near the centerpiece, even though many experts make it sound like it is.

In fact, I’d venture to guess that such companies would have great engagement even if they never took any employee surveys. Why? Read on.

I’ve carefully observed many great leaders when they study the results from their employee survey. Their most frequent words in response are, “How can we get better at catching that day-to-day?” … “Why didn’t we already know that?”

In other words, their entire focus is on how they can learn to be even more alert to their employees. They don’t get lost in the specific answers. They don’t create a laundry list of tasks so they can “fix the engagement problem.”

The height of management laziness

I’ve also observed many ordinary leaders when they study their survey results. Their most frequent words are, “This person just doesn’t get what we’re trying to do” … “Oh, that’s just one person saying that” … “That’s nothing, I‘ll fix that problem today.”

If you ask them how they attain such a high level of engagement, they struggle to explain it to you. That’s how well they’ve internalized their alertness. It’s an intrinsic part of who they are.

When you get to that level, employee surveys become a matter of personal choice — they are not a ‘best practice,’ and they are not at all essential.

Simple, Swift, Sweeping

If you choose to take employee surveys, be very clear that you won’t get the “answers” you seek to fix your engagement problems. So, be sure to use your survey results as a report card on how mentally lazy you are. This is not your employees’ problem. It’s your problem. Fix your problem.

It’s a rather simple fix.

To the end of mental laziness,

Aman Motwane