S5E1: How To Engage Your Employees - Part 1

Jason goes over the latest engagement numbers from Gallup, in part 1 of a 3-part series on what's going on out there and what you can do about it.

Jason challenges managers to do one of two things THIS WEEK:

1. Show more care, communication, or respect for employees in 2-3 mins/day.
2. Have a conversation with your managers and employees about what great performance looks like.

Leadership Voyage is brought to you by Golden Mean Consulting Group, specializing in the training of new managers.

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Transcript

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Wherever you are on your leadership voyage, it starts here.[music][music] All right, everybody. Welcome back to Leadership Voyage, the podcast dedicated to your pursuit of becoming a great leader. My name is Jason Wick, and this is season five. Can you believe it? the fifth year of leadership voyage dedicated to helping you wherever you're at on your leadership journey uh whether it's formal management or otherwise. Welcome if you're new. Thank you so much for joining. If you've been with us since the beginning, I can only express my appreciation for your loyalty and for your commitment to trying to up your leadership game. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Where do we begin? Where do we begin? Well, let's see. Yeah, I guess there's the usual stuff. If you're looking for a free grocery delivery on an order of $35 or more, use Instacart. I myself I'm a customer. Give it a shot. It's in the show notes. Click the link. Piece of cake. Low risk. Have uh items handpicked by a trusted shopper who will communicate with you while in the store. Get all the items you like at your doorstep in as fast as an hour. Check that out. Um, how about getting in touch with me? So, as usual, the email address is startyouvoyagegmail.com. Drop me a line there with anything you want to to discuss. Uh, feedback on episodes, uh, frustration or delight with topics, responses to guests we've had, anything like that. Feel free to drop me an email there. Also, there's a link in the show notes uh, which says text Jason. You can do that. If you're on your phone and you already listening and you don't want to go through the uh go through your email platform, go ahead and just tap that text button and send a few notes over. I'd love to hear from you. So, where are we? It is February 2026. January, um at least here in the United States, um particularly as it relates to politics has been one heck of a month. It's been a very divisive month. It's been a a crazy month. And I know a lot of people out there are really on edge. Uh again, as I've said many times on this show, this show is not political, but the things that happen in the country politically affect everyone as human beings. And I think that's really important to keep in mind as a leader and a manager. What your people are experiencing matters. And it doesn't mean you have to get in debates or have to talk about policy. It just means there are a lot of folks on edge one way or the other right now. So, keeping that in mind, I was inspired by the latest from Gallup, which came into my email inbox this past week, uh, the last week of January, and I'm using it as a springboard. What we're going to do is a threepart series on this work that Gallup has done around engagement and I would like that to be the focal point for the show uh at least over this first quarter or so maybe longer I can't say for certain in 2026 is for you as managers as leaders how can you better engage your employees even with the demand and constraints that you have put upon you. Whether it's budget cuts, do more with less, you're managing more people than ever, the topline or bottom line goals are insane or unrealistic, and all you're focused on is those things. Whatever the situation, my goal in this first handful of episodes is to help you all focus on how to engage your employees better. And the way we're going to set that groundwork is with a three episode series here based on Gallup's employee engagement work that was released January 28th, 2026. Link is in the show notes. But remember, my goal here when I talk about the the news and leadership is to not make you have to go read the story. Let me tell you about the story. Let me tell you what's important about this story and give you some tips to help open your eyes and see it in your own workplace. Maybe how you will uh be able to stand out from the crowd. How your organization will be able to engage its folks better than your competitors or how your team will stand out compared to others in your organization and maybe become a model and an influence for others in your organization. Doesn't that sound good? I hope it sounds good because the news I'm going to talk to you about from this uh report is bad. We'll call it straight up. Okay. Um I know it's kind of Gallup's angle. They usually have a headline that focuses on why things are bad or worse and they kind of do find that niche. But the truth is if you just objectively look at these numbers, it isn't good. And I want to make sure you all are aware of it because just when you think about it, it's highly unlikely that your organizations are exempt to what's going on in the US in particular right now. This sorry for everyone worldwide. I know we have listeners uh around the world, but this Gallup report is specifically on United States employee engagement. So it may be uh broadly applicable. Uh we'll see if the state of the global workforce report comes out here soon by Gallup and I'm sure I'll be covering that for you all as well. But here what I'm going to do I'm going to give you a summary of this uh story again January 28th 2026 from Gallup. It's called US employee engagement declines from 2020 peak. It's by Jim Harter. H A R Ter Jim Harter. And I'm going to give you what's important here. And that's kind of the foundation for the first part of this three-part podcast series on this report. At the end, I'm going to challenge you as I'm challenging myself when this microphone is turned off to try things that are very low investment but potentially significant when it comes to the engagement and well-being of your employees. So without uh any further delay, let's get into it. So here we go folks.[clears throat] As I said a couple times already, the story is about US employee engagement declining from the 2020 peak. This is an analysis of 2025 in this story, right? We're right at the beginning of 2026 as of this recording. And so 31% is the number of folks actively engaged at work in the US. That's the same as last year. Okay, 31%. Now what does that mean? It means that if you have a team of six people, only two of them are actively engaged. I want you to imagine the difference in your team if you could just change that number from two to three. If you could get three people on your team actively engaged instead of two, what an amazing productivity increase, probably a morale increase for the others. Think about this for a second. The bar is really low right now, everybody. Okay, 31% actively engaged workforce. uh as I said this is an unchanged number but it has decreased over the last 5 years it has gone down from 36 to 31 which if you think of a 5% drop compared to 36 it actually means that it's a 14% decrease of folks who are actively engaged over the last uh five years. So, it's unlikely that you had a a team of eight that's been unchanged since 2020. But if you had a team of eight, that would mean about one more person is not actively engaged compared to 2020. So, that's not the right direction, right? There's a little math involved here, and I don't I know that some of you glaze over with math, but here's the story. For every percentage that that number changes, the actively engaged, it's equivalent to about 1.6 million people. So here's the part you can remember. An equivalent population to New York City is no longer actively engaged compared to 5 years ago. So about 8 million folks in the workforce, fewer 8 million fewer folks in the workforce who are actively engaged compared to 5 years ago. That's where we are. That's the reality. That's the trend line, right? We all love trend lines in our businesses. We like to see where things are going. And when we see the trends going in the wrong direction, we get together. We collaborate. We brainstorm. What are we going to do about it to turn that trend line around? That's what I'm here to help you with as a manager, which is the most important thing for the middle part of a business, getting stuff done, right? The manager employee relationship, clear direction, knowing where to go, clear expectations, good relationships, trust, hope, all that stuff matters. That's what leads to engaged employees, which is the direct relationship with profit. Honestly, engaged employees lead to profit. Okay. One thing that's focused on in this report is young workers, specifically Gen Z and younger millennials. So this is people who are in the workforce who were born I think it's 18 uh 1989 or later. Um they've experienced an eight-point drop in engagement in the last 5 years. Sorry this is all in the last 5 years. Older millennials those are born in basically folks born in the 80s they have experienced a 9-point drop and Gen X has experienced a six-point drop. So, those three generations pretty sign, excuse me, sorry about that. Uh, better get a drink of my coffee. Hold on. Those three groups have seen a drop uh pretty significant in the last 5 years. Baby boomers, no change. Uh, I have I don't know what to say about it. It's very interesting. It must be it could be the relationship that different generations have with work and maybe there's a relationship a correlation uh in volatility there based on working conditions. Uh I'm not going to dig into that one too much because the bulk of our workforce is Gen X and younger. So we're going to stay focused on that part for now. All right, let's focus uh on that younger folks. In the in the story here, it says engagement suffering for younger members of the workforce, as I already introduced, but Gen Z and younger millennials, again, people essentially born around 1990 or later. They're having the biggest drops in feeling cared about. They're having the biggest drops in feeling like they have opportunities to learn. And they're having the biggest drops as far as it relates to, you know, feeling like they have they can they're being developed, developing their skills. And here's the bullet point that kills me. This is kind of the one that when I read it made me think, "This needs emphasis on the show. This needs emphasis." 41% of Gen Z and younger millennials agree that their supervisor cares about them as a person. Did you know that up to 82% of new managers are left completely in the dark, untrained and searching for answers? That lack of preparation doesn't just hurt your new leaders. It holds your entire business back, draining morale and costing you productivity. Stop the clock on bad management. Golden Mean Consulting offers a proven no fluff approach to help your new managers build the right habits from day one. Our co-founders Sonia and Jason have over 20 years of experience in the trenches, so you can trust they know what works. To learn more, visit golden means consulting group.com. That's g o lenme[music] consultinggroup.com. That's crazy. Come on people, think about this. that three out of every five uh people who are supervisors that their younger employees basically do not think that that person cares about them at all and that's the person directing their work or paying attention to you know their performance just saying hi to them in the morning whatever it is that is the downer for me and what comes after that is only 37% think they have had opportunities to learn and grow. That's down by 11 points. Knowing what's expected of me is around 42%. That's down nine points. And having someone that encourages their development is down to 36%. That's down 9 points. Because what's coming along with that is a loss of connection to the mission or purpose of the company, which is now down to 28% for Gen Z and younger millennials. So there's your cascade. Just process that for a minute. They don't think anyone cares about them at work. They don't have opportunities to grow. They don't know what's expected of them. They don't have someone encouraging their development. and they're losing uh connection with the purpose of their organizations. That's the wrong direction. This is so achievable, folks. We can turn this around. We can turn this around in a few minutes a day. A few minutes a day, you can start to turn it around. What about older millennials? Those born in the 80s. What are they saying? They're saying similar things. They're down 12 points when it comes to their supervisor caring about them, having opportunities to learn, uh, to learn and grow at work, down 11 points. Encouraging developments down 10 points. Here's the one that's new in this this this generation 80s. Born in the 80s. Uh, at work, my opinions seem to count. only 26% of people, so 1/4 of your employees who are older millennials are saying, "Yeah, I have thoughts on on things. I see what's wrong and broken. I'm trying to surface that idea, but uh it doesn't seem no one seems to care about it." So, that's the wrong direction right now. The reason I'm hopeful,[clears throat] like I said, this is kind of it's a lot of negativity. We're kicking off the year. January's been a tumultuous month around the US, especially politically, as I've said. But as I try to capture on this show, so many of the stories are are negative stories, but the point of it here is there are a lot of basic human things that we can do to turn this around. Find the line of autonomy you have as a manager, as a leader, whatever your role is in your organization. Maybe you don't even have any direct reports, but you lead a project. Maybe you're a product manager or program manager. Maybe people look to you for direction. You can do this too. It's not just about the org chart. If you are in the seauite, if you are an SVP, right, leading business unit, think about all the people looking to you and how much your presence matters. If you're a manager in the trenches, a supervisor in the trenches, working with your folks every day or every week, seeing them regularly, think about all the touch points and opportunities you have to influence this problem, folks. You have it right there at your fingertips. no matter where you are, no matter who you are. And that's the part that's exciting for me to think about because although this next section from the report is negative, I think you'll see that it's human. It's basic. It's not something that takes a PhD to figure out. It's not something that requires huge action plans by HR to do. It reminds me of Zach Mercurio and Mattering, which is back in season 2, episode 1, I think. Apologies if that's wrong, but I'm pretty sure that was right. Season 2, episode 1, actions that help others understand that what they do matters, that they matter. So, here's the basic point in the article. There's a decline in employee engagement that comes down to basic needs. And the two things here that are really important are communication and respect. Communication and respect. So 28% of folks say better communication would most help them gain clarity about what is expected at work.[snorts] So better communication, what does that look like? We're going to dive into that in this three-part series. 7% mentioned direction from leadership could help them. Direction from leadership. What are they looking for? They're looking for greater transparency from management regarding strategy, goals, and decisions. So, kind of coming back to like why. Why are we doing what we're doing? And although that sounds simple, it's being glossed over. Why are we doing what we're doing? I don't know. Think about it a second. Sometimes strategy comes from the top and the true reason is uh guy in charge wants to do it. That's the reason. It would be better if the organization would say it, don't you think? Rather than saying nothing. Hey, Joe, who's in charge? He really believes in this. He thinks this is going to take us to wherever. He thinks this is going to help us be more fill-in- thelank. He is passionate about this and believes in it strongly. Or over here, why why are we doing this uh reorg or something, right? Uh nobody can tell you why. Well, over here, uh, Sue, she really believes that if we reorg this way, we're going to be able to communicate better. Great. Awesome. Let's do it. [laughter] Right. It's so silly, isn't it? People are looking for transparency about strategy, goals, and decision-m. Where are we going? What are we trying to achieve? And how are we trying to get there? Yeah, if you can hear my dog barking, apologies. It sounds so simple, but you can probably do this in a couple of sentences. If you're in middle management, ask questions up the chain. Demand answers. Demand answers. Okay, back to uh communication and respect and those basic needs. 24% said supportive relationships, communication, and respect would help them feel more cared about at work. My goodness, folks. What does this look like as a manager? You come in, you walk around to the people. If you're in the office, you walk around to them and you ask them how their morning's gone. I mean, what does that take? Two, three minutes a person. Two, three minutes per person, maybe, right? [snorts] Respecting them as people, just showing them that you're there and you care a little bit. It it's it could be that small to turn the tide, right? And if you're not doing it now, the change in behavior will probably be noticed in a positive way. Okay. And the last bit here to f to focus on from this report is about uh expectations of around performance. So only about a third of leaders say that they understand the definition of exceptional performance for their role. Okay? They don't know what great looks like. So, if you're a manager or you're a leader, I would encourage you to go to go to the uh work today or over the weekend, think about it, and go to work next week and say, I'm going to ask my boss the same kind of questions I would have asked them in the interview way back whenever you started at this at this organization. What's a question you ask in an interview? You say, "What does success look like?" What would the what would success in this role look like after year one or you know whatever your version is? Do it again. Reinterview your boss. Push them to give you clearer expectations around performance. And if you're a manager, here's the next one. Only 22% of people managers, project managers, and individual contributors strongly agree that they have a clear definition of performance. So the farther down the org chart you go, if you want to visualize it that way, the worse this number gets. Only one of five contributors have a clear understanding of what exceptional performance is. If you can't understand what exceptional looks like, how would you ever get there? So if you're a middle manager, ask this question upward and push this conversation downward. Ask your ask your people, hey, what do you think exceptional performance looks like? What a great conversation in your next one-on-one, right? Be really, really cool. And it pushes you as the manager to think about it. And when you hear all the inputs from all your employees on what their answers were, it might really have you think again before that next performance review. And folks are unintentionally blindsided with some of your feedback cuz they didn't know they were supposed to do X, Y, and Z. Right? This is a lot of 101 stuff. But here's the point. A beginner's mind helps us all continue to do the basics, which is where it all happens. The basics over and over, executing on the basics. We all know it, right? And what are we talking about in this report from Gallup? It's the basics. engaging employees, communicating, respecting, showing them that we care, and giving them clear expectations around what's expected of them. So, the last bit I'm going to give you here, when a leader has clarity around performance, 81% of them are engaged. Isn't that crazy? 81% of them are engaged compared to 28% when they don't know what is se exceptional looks like. And very similar with individual contributors when they know what great looks like 65% are engaged. But when they don't 18% are engaged, folks. So who am I? I'm a guy with a podcast, right? I've got management experience. Am I a great manager? I don't know. Doesn't really matter. The point is I'm coming back to these basics this week. I'm thinking about these basics this week because the data tells us in aggregate this is where we need to focus our attention. Your projects for your team are due next week. Yes, but you will not get the same results out of your employees if they are not treated as as human beings with communication and respect and they don't know what great looks like. So the challenge to you is to pick one of these two things. Either show more care for your employees by talking to them a little bit more, asking them how they're doing, saying hi, doing a nice thing for them, telling them that what they do matters, telling them that you care about, whatever that looks like for you. That would be number one. Or number two, have those performance conversations. Ask your manager, what does great look like? Just like you would have in the interview. And in you, in the case of your employees, ask them what they think great looks like, and it'll lead to great conversations. So, lots of sobering numbers from Gallup, but that's not the point. The point is to make the point to you all about what the reality looks like, but have a couple of things that you can pull out of this. That's the great part. It's in our control. Stay tuned. Coming soon, parts two and three about more deep dive into some of this information and more specifics about what you can leverage both through my own thoughts and through past guests. But until next time, everybody, take care.[music][music]