A little while back at the Employee Engagement Network, David Zinger posed a question to the group about important engagement statistics. He writes:

In an interview about the book StrengthsFinder 2.0 for the Gallup Management Journal, Tom Rath discussed the strong link between a leader’s focus and employee engagement. Here were the 3 powerful conclusions from Gallup’s research on conversation, engagement, and strengths:

If your manager primarily ignores you your chances of being actively disengaged are 40%
If your manager focuses on your weaknesses your chances of being actively disengaged are 22%
If you manager focuses on your strengths your chances of being actively disengaged are only 1%

The point of the statistics is to show the importance of management focus on employees’s strengths rather than their weaknesses. Makes sense. But, I guess the surprise for me is that (only?) 40% are disengaged if their manager ignores them. There’s probably some nuances behind this stat, but it does make you wonder who that other 60% is doesn’t it?

Being flat-out ignored by a manager or executive decision-makers unfortunately does happen far more than it should. However, my guess is if you’re a manager and you’re here reading this, you don’t fall into this rogue’s gallery of emotional unintelligence and leadership incompetence. But even the best managers can fall prey to some forms of ignoring her or his people. Each of these ignoring actions can contribute to a feeling of employee invisibility:

Not acknowledging contributions
Individuals want to know that their contributions are seen and appreciated. It always amazes me that so many organizations undercommunicate the genuinely positive experiences of its employees. And sorry…a generic, “Way to go!” doesn’t cut it. Be direct and be specific in what you say.

Not recognizing expertise
For many managers, expertise is only applicable if it’s directly related to an employee’s immediate work (a marketer’s expertise is marketing, an accountant’s expertise is in accounting, and so on). But only seeing and valuing this one-dimensional resume expertise can be discouraging. Managers need to take the time to learn about the expertise that exists outside their employees’s normal everyday work. It could be that your organization’s next great breakthrough may come from an unlikely place…but you’ll never know if you don’t ask.

Not seeing the individual worth
This is really about seeing someone only at the surface and in the plural form. It sees “people” but ignores the “person.” It’s the manager who walks by an employee’s desk and says “hi” but never stops to actually get to know him or her. Stop with the small talk and take the time to ask more interesting and powerful questions that can help you get to know your employees better.

As Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey write in How The Way We Talk Can Change The Way We Work (and if you haven’t read it, do yourself a favor and buy yourself a copy):

We all do better at work if we regularly have the experience that what we do matters, that it is valuable, and that our presence makes a difference to others. We may know in our hearts that what we do matters, but it is certainly confirming to hear the words from others. We do not, after all, work and live in a vacuum. Believing that what we do and how we do it make a difference can also lead us to take additional care in performing our work.

The good news is that each of these are quickly remedied with some careful self-awareness. And if you’re still not sure whether you’re fully seeing your employees, take the courageous path and ask.