When done correctly, performance conversations inspire employees to reinvest energy in their work and push their limits. Unfortunately, most conversations go a different way. They may stoke fear, uncertainty, and self-doubt.
At the NeuroLeadership Institute, we look to science — specifically, the science of quality conversations — to bridge that gap. From our research, we can discern three key habits that boost the quality of conversations. They include minimizing social threat, focusing on continuous growth, and facilitating insight.
We explored each of these three habits in a recent piece for Quartz, entitled “How to have conversations that make people stay.”
The data tell us that employee engagement has been rising for almost two decades. However, still only 34% of employees report feeling engaged at work. (A separate 13% feel actively disengaged.) Research suggests that leaders can boost engagement by helping their employees feel psychologically safer, more capable of improvement, and more invested in their ideas.
Click here to read the entire Quartz article.
To learn even more about the essential habits for leadership, register for this year’s Culture & Leadership Insight Lab.
