Perception is Reality

It’s not always easy to hear what people really think of you. After all, as a manager, you know what needs to be done, so you hope your employees will understand and follow your direction.

The problem is that this approach rarely works. Employees are people too, and how they feel about their manager affects the quality of their work.

The first step in building a culture of employee engagement is understanding how your employees react to your actions. You need to be aware of how they see you because their perception is reality and has a major impact on your business growth.

In our second video as part of the “Power Up Employee Engagement” video series, you’ll hear what these managers did when they learned how their teams saw them. The most common (and surprising) piece of feedback? They needed to listen.

While the managers thought they were on the right track, their employees did not agree. Many team members commented that their managers arrived with their own agenda and seldom asked employees for their ideas or opinions. When they did get a chance to speak with their managers, the teams said they were distracted by their phones the whole time. That said to them that they weren’t important to the manager or the business.

These managers used the feedback to change how they interacted with their direct reports, but it didn’t stop there. In this clip, you’ll see the different ways they engaged with their employees on a more personal level.

Read more about employee engagement in our ongoing study, Power Up Your People.