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Encourage Employees to Tell You About Problem Colleagues

During my many years as an advice columnist, I’ve heard from concerned employees whose managers seemed afraid to talk to them. The supervisors, instead, spent a great deal of time holed up in their offices. By contrast I’ve witnessed the joy that employees feel when managers frequently ask them what’s on their minds.

Your employees are intimately involved in your business and have valuable firsthand knowledge about how to improve it. That includes feedback on problem colleagues. Executives too busy to capitalize on that source of information are passing up invaluable opportunities. Jim Sinegal, the chief executive officer of the warehouse club, Costco, is legendary for his enthusiasm about communicating with his employees.

“The employees know I want to say hello to them because I like them,” he said in an ABC News interview.

If you encourage open communication, your employees will alert you to a struggling colleague who needs your intervention. They may even have suggestions for improvement because they found themselves in similar circumstances. Let the helpful employees know you always welcome suggestions of how to put any of the company’s resources to better use.