WASHINGTON, D.C. – December 2, 2009 – Note to managers: Employees want a lot more attention and feedback from you, even if it’s sometimes negative. According to a new study by Leadership IQ, 66% of employees say that they have too little interaction with their boss. And in an indication that this could be driven by the recession, this number is up from 53% in May, 2008, the last time this study was conducted.
But employees don’t just want warm-and-fuzzy interactions. While 67% of employees say they get too little positive feedback, 51% also say they get too little constructive criticism from their boss. Perhaps most troubling is that employees who said they didn’t get enough feedback were 43% less likely to recommend their company to others as a great organization to work for.
Leadership IQ, a leadership training and research company, compiled these results after surveying 3,611 workers from 291 business and healthcare organizations, predominantly in the United States and Canada. Employees were asked 21 questions about their relationship with their direct boss, their personal effectiveness, workforce issues and overall management effectiveness.
This study discovered that it’s not just the quantity of the feedback that is lacking. 53% of employees say that when their boss does praise excellent performance, the feedback does not provide enough useful information to help them repeat it. And 65% of employees say that when their boss criticizes poor performance, they don’t provide enough useful information to help employees correct the issue.
Mark Murphy, Chairman of Leadership IQ, says “Managers are neglecting one of the most fundamental aspects of their job; providing feedback. Especially in these stressful times, employees are desperate for feedback and interaction with their boss. And when they don’t get it, their job performance suffers. But perhaps even worse is the finding that when managers actually do give feedback, more than half of employees say that the feedback is useless We know that this has worsened, at least in part, because of the recession. When times get tough, leadership development decreases and managers become avoidant. When your own stress levels are through the roof, the last thing many managers want is to meet the emotional needs of their employees. But this is precisely the time that employees really need lots of feedback, and they need it
to be very high quality.”
Many of the techniques that Leadership IQ recommends for correcting this problem are available in Murphy’s latest book Hundred Percenters: Challenge Your Employees to Give it Their All, and They’ll Give you Even More (McGraw-Hill, November, 2009).
Please contact us to request the complete study or to schedule an interview with Mark Murphy.
About the Study
Leadership IQ surveyed 3,611 workers from 291 business and healthcare organizations, predominantly in the United States and Canada. Employees were asked 21 questions about their relationship with their direct boss, their personal effectiveness, workforce issues and overall management effectiveness. The employee surveys were delivered to Leadership IQ subscribers, with 93% of respondents submitting their responses electronically, 5% via paper and 2% over the phone. Leadership IQ statisticians reviewed the data for accuracy and consistency and analyzed the valid submissions.
About Leadership IQ
Leadership IQ, a research and training company, directs one of the largest leadership studies ever conducted. Our work has appeared in Fortune, Forbes, Business Week, CBS News, ABC’s 20/20, Fox Business News and many more. Leadership IQ is headquartered in Washington, DC with offices in Atlanta and Cincinnati.
This press release was distributed through PR Web by Human Resources Marketer (HR Marketer: www.HRmarketer.com) on behalf of the company
listed above.