Truth 6. Real engagement gains happen after survey scores come in

If you didn’t like getting report cards as a kid, it’s a fair bet that you don’t like facing the results of your company’s engagement survey as an adult. It’s only natural. Who likes to be scrutinized, measured, and reported on? No matter how professionally the survey is administered, it still feels as though you’re under a spotlight—judged in very large part by the people who work for you. Depending on your company’s policy regarding how the survey results are viewed over time, your own chances for promotion might get dinged if there are no signs of improvement year over year.

Try to forget about all that, if you can.

It’s what you do with the survey results that makes the big difference in engagement gains over the period before the next survey is administered. That’s almost completely within your control. First thing to do: Resist the urge to tuck the results report into the way-back of your hard drive, desk drawer, or truck bed. The survey isn’t a test you pass or fail. It’s a reflection of your team’s current state of enthusiasm for their work and the workplace culture. Keeping that in mind might help keep you from taking it personally and from avoiding eye contact with your employees.

The survey isn’t a test you pass or fail.

“Choosing not to do anything with the survey results is disengaging itself,” says Jeffrey Jolton, director of consulting for Kenexa, a talent management and research firm. “How would you feel if I walked up to you and asked ‘how are you?’ and just as you start answering I turned around and walked away? I don’t acknowledge you. I don’t respond. It’s going to leave you feeling empty, disconnected, and weird. That’s what happens when you give a survey to your people but then don’t follow up. When you leave your people hanging, it creates a distraction.”

Managers let the months go by without settling down to address the survey results for a variety of reasons—none of them very good ones.

You don’t see the survey as being relevant to what you’re doing as a manager. This is especially true among managers who focus more on processes and parts than they do on people.

Dealing with survey results hasn’t been modeled well by your superiors. It’s natural to make priorities of those things that your own boss prioritizes. If your own survey about your manager has been swept under the rug, that’s a strong cue to you that it’s acceptable for you to do same. Don’t.

Or you’re concerned about dealing with your team’s emotions and perceptions of what kind of leader you are. (Or maybe you’re even afraid of your own emotions.)

Or you simply don’t know how to work through the results with your team and take action on their comments. Jeff Jolton offers these suggestions:

• Come to your team meeting undefensive, if you can. “Managers are often afraid of the process, especially the first time through,” he says. “But when I meet them afterward, they frequently tell me that it was one of the most engaging experiences for them personally. They’ll realize that their team members actually want to help them, not work against them. In the ensuing months, they’re much happier and their people are much happier.”

• If the survey results are truly abysmal and you think that the team meeting will escalate into an out-of-control complaint fest, arrange to have the team meet twice. You’re not there the first time. But someone everyone trusts is: a fellow team member with a leadership role, someone from HR, or even a professional mediator. Have them use that meeting to organize their thoughts, vent their emotions, and decide what they want to say to you for improvement expectations. You’re present for the second meeting. And by that time, let’s hope, everyone will be able to focus on improving team communication and processes moving forward.

• Commit to making improvements only on one to four items for the upcoming year. As a team, work together to select those items and describe what the improved scenario will look like. You don’t have to promise the moon. And some improvements require cooperation up the org chart that you have no control over. Don’t overwhelm yourself with across-the-board promises of improvements. That will set you up to fail.

• Call attention to the improvements as you make them. It might seem immodest to toot your leadership horn, but you can’t expect your team to notice the changes on their own. We’re not wired to notice the absence of pain. (When, for instance, was the last time you noticed the instant an excruciating itch disappeared?) Report back to your team that you took action on their concerns. Or reference the survey conversation throughout the year in other team meetings to let them know you’re still committed to those agreements you made.