Disengaged Employees? Don’t Take “Yes” For an Answer!

is one of the questions I am often asked to address in my keynote presentations and business training workshops.

There are many tactics, but it all starts with realizing you have disengaged employees in the first place!

One simple way of checking this is to see how frequently your employees are responding to you with “yes.”

Having people around you and who work for you respond to your ideas and instructions by saying, ”yes.”
“How to deal with disengaged employees?”
It might also be a sign that you are in big trouble…

“Yes, And” vs. “Yes”

One of the primary rules of improv comedy, and one of the key things I talk about in my presentations, is the idea of saying, thinking, and responding with “yes, and.” (I even wrote a book on the topic)

Usually I talk about saying, “yes, and” as an alternative to “yes, but.” Here, however, I am talking about paying attention to what you hear your people say. If you are hearing a lot of, “yes,” and not a lot of, “yes, and,” that may be a sign that things aren’t so great.

Why “Yes” May Be a Bad Thing

Before I launched my own business, I worked a few different jobs in a variety of environments. Some I liked very much, some were just a paycheck, and some I hated.

At the ones I hated, and even at the ones that were just a paycheck, I said, “yes,” more than at the ones I loved.

Why?

Because it’s easy to say, “yes.”

• I could just keep my head down, do what people wanted, and get the heck out of there at the end of the day.
• I needed to care a lot more to say, “yes, and.”
• I needed to care to offer alternatives.
• I needed to care to innovate better ways of doing things.
• I needed to care to deal with the potential conflict of disagreeing.
• I needed to care to take initiative.
• I needed to care to push myself and grow.
• I needed to care to say, “yes, and”

I didn’t need to care to simply say, “yes.”

We think disengaged employees will argue, be negative, and rant and rave. Some do. Many disengaged employees, however, simply say, “yes,” do less than their best work, don’t bother improving themselves or the company, and quietly look for other work.

What Are You Hearing?

How about you? In your organization, in your department, with your team, do things seem very nice and peaceful because everyone just says, “yes” and goes about their business?

When people repeatedly respond with nothing more than a simple “yes,” it may be because they are disengaged, or that they don’t care, or that they are getting ready to leave. Whatever the underlying reason, the end result for you and your organization is lower productivity, a lack of innovation, and an increase in turnover.

“Yes” doesn’t necessarily mean that you are on the brink of disaster. But it is worth a closer look to see whether your people are simply saying “yes,” because they don’t care enough to say, “yes, and.”

Want Help?

Do you want Avish’s help getting disengaged employees into a “yes, and” state of mind? Then check out his keynote speaking and business training options!