We have an employee engagement problem. Everywhere I go, I see disengaged employees. Poor employee engagement creates low morale, attrition, poor customer experience, and negatively impacts revenue. Delivering an exceptional customer experience is the utmost competitive advantage, so why are managers ignoring disengaged employees? Successful employee engagement doesn’t just happen. It demands an intentional coaching strategy. How do you coach a disengaged employee?
Coaching disengaged employees is critical to your culture. They tend to personalize feedback, think their challenges are more extensive than they are, and, more importantly, their situation will never change. Disengaged employee’s egos throw temper tantrums for attention. Further, their good judgment gives way to being right, heard, and affirmed. As a result, disengaged employees become stuck in a pattern of entitlement, low self-esteem, obnoxious behavior, and non-performance. Consequently, coaching disengaged employees is the only way to disrupt that pattern.
It is the employee’s responsibility to show up to work ready to do their best. But, the company doesn’t make it easy for them to do so. Organizations are full of bureaucracy, cynicism, personal agendas, and office politics. In other words, the often poisonous culture perpetuates employee disengagement. However, the manager is responsible for helping employees be great despite those factors. It is the manager’s job to model better behavior and set the bar at excellence. Managers must coach disengaged employees differently than engaged ones.
Common Signs of a Disengaged Employee
The first step to coaching a disengaged employee is to identify they are disengaged. Below are common signs of a disengaged employee.
1) Performance declines
The most obvious sign of a disengaged employee is their performance begins to decline or becomes inconsistent. They start missing deadlines or produce sloppy work full of inaccuracies. During coaching sessions, disengaged employees often offer excuses for poor performance rather than owning their sloppy work. They can maintain their daily tasks, but their growth potential stagnates.
2) Noticeable lack of interest
Disengaged employees stop contributing to team discussions. They rarely offer new ideas—further, disengaged employees are withdrawal during one-to-ones and coaching sessions. Disengaged employees succumb to the monotony of their position, passion is absent, and they cease to strive for anything more extraordinary.
3) Disengaged employees continually voice concerns
Highly engaged employees become frustrated and disengaged when their ideas aren’t considered. An employee who continuously initiates discussions to voice concerns may be at a tipping point to becoming disengaged. Additionally, during coaching sessions, they voice the same concerns repeatedly. When they realize nothing will change the employee becomes disengaged.
4) Increased PTO or absence rate
When an employee suddenly starts using their PTO, especially a day a week, or suddenly develops an attendance issue signals a potentially disengaged employee. Both are a strong indicator of searching for a new job and going on interviews.
Should you cut or coach a disengaged employee?
Before you invest your time, effort, and energy into coaching a disengaged employee, evaluate if you should cut them instead. You can’t save every disengaged employee. Therefore, it is critical to assess them first.
1) Do they have adequate skills?
Has the job grown beyond the capabilities of the employee? Consider if additional development and learning opportunities would help them close their skills gap. If training would help, build that into your coaching plan. If not, consider another role that would better suit them.
2) Was there a behavior change?
Why did their passion for the role change? There might be external factors or issues happening that are unrelated to work. Ask what is going on so you can identify solutions to help them. If they are willing to open up, you can develop a coaching plan to help. But, if they continue to withdraw, you will have to take additional measures to cut them from the team.
3) What is the manager’s impact?
Are you the problem? Managers are the primary influence on employee engagement. Do you recognize them enough? Have you offered new and challenging opportunities or assignments? Do you frequently discuss their career goals and have an active plan to reach them? Even more, are there multiple disengaged employees? Often, managers point their fingers toward the employee to explain away issues when it would be best to look inward.
Coaching questions to use with a disengaged employee
If you’ve decided the disengaged employee is worth saving, bring these coaching questions to your next session. These questions will empower them and bring self-awareness to their behavior.
1) Why are you passionate about the company mission? How do your values align with the company?
This coaching question helps the disengaged employee remember why they wanted to work for the company. If their values align with the organization and the organization prioritizes those values, you can get them to reengage.
2) What would great look like right now?
Using this coaching question with a disengaged employee helps them set the bar of excellence for themself. As a result, they more readily buy into what is needed to do great work.
3) What strength do you possess that would bring value to this situation?
Asking a disengaged employee this coaching question helps them remember what they are good at. But, unfortunately, people often discount looking within themselves for the answer, even though they already have what it takes to turn the situation around in most cases.
4) What is true versus what is an assumption in this situation?
This coaching question helps disengaged employees separate fact from fiction. Employees are easily misguided by attaching interpretive stories to factual situations. Helping them see the truth instead of assumptions helps the employee reengage.
5) How would you tell the story of your career thus far?
Using this coaching question with a disengaged employee helps them remember what has helped them excel and what has held them back.
6) What are your suggestions to improve the concerns you have about the organization?
Asking this coaching question helps the disengaged employee feel valued and a part of the solution. In addition, it forces them to assess the problem from the organization’s perspective.
7) What is your plan to accomplish what needs to be done despite the obstacles?
This final coaching question is probably the most important to help a disengaged employee. With this question, you are encouraging them to own their behavior and the solution. It enables the employee to recognize they control the outcome rather than being a victim.
Employee disengagement is contagious and needs to be addressed. Coaching won’t help all disengaged employees, so identifying who to coach and who to cut is essential. Connecting with employees one-on-one and approaching each conversation with the above coaching questions helps you reengage a disengaged employee.
