Ethan Burris, a senior associate dean and professor of management at the University of Texas at Austin, shares insights on enhancing employee communication. He emphasizes the necessity of making employees feel comfortable to voice their ideas, highlighting proactive outreach by managers. Simple techniques like two-question check-ins can foster a culture of engagement. The conversation also touches on the critical link between honesty and organizational culture, revealing how authentic dialogue can significantly boost decision-making and employee morale.
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insights INSIGHT
Leadership Needs Frontline Information
Leaders need access to accurate frontline information to make the best decisions.
However, higher-ups are often less connected to this crucial information, creating a barrier to effective leadership.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Baseball Bat Leadership Fails
A sports-obsessed leader brought a baseball bat to work to symbolize focus on quarterly numbers.
This aggressive behavior discouraged honest employee feedback and openness.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Proactively Solicit Employee Voice
Managers must proactively solicit employee voice, not just say they have an open door.
Use tactics like two-word check-ins and eye contact to create comfort and expectation for speaking up.
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Ethan Burris is a senior associate dean in the business school at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is also a professor of management.
Ethan has helped improve operations and employee engagement for several top companies, including Fortune 500 companies in technology, financial services, casual dining, grocery, and retail sectors, along with hospitals, defense contractors, commercial real estate companies, and governmental agencies. He has also acted as a visiting scholar for Microsoft and Google.
Ethan earned a PhD and MS from Cornell University where he worked as a lecturer before joining Texas.
In this episode we discuss the following:
In order for leaders to consistently make the best decisions, they need access to the best information. But all too often, employees who have that information don’t speak up.
To get employees to speak up, maybe the most important thing managers can do is proactively reach out and solicit voice. No good manager has ever said they have a closed-door policy. But if we don’t have systems in place that encourage employee voice, our door will feel much more closed to employees than we perceive.
Simple techniques can help employees speak up. For example, managers can use the two-question, two-word response check in at the beginning of meetings: How are you feeling? What’s going on? This gives people a chance to speak, while also creating an expectation that everyone has something to say.
Eye contact can also be important. When we give deference to people it signals we trust them and helps them feel like speaking up.
It’s also important for leaders to be consistent, otherwise it feels risky to speak up.
Proactively seeking voice comes at a cost. Many of the Type A+ people Ethan consults with feel like some of these things are too touchy feel. Some of the activities also take time that could be spent on other things.
By proactively seeking out voice, we signal that we value it and increase the odds that we get access to the best information from our employees.
Meikles & Dimes 