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Micromanaging may have fallen com-

pletely out of fashion, because many

employees hardly see their bosses now

that a time-consuming recession has

hit. According to a recent Leadership IQ

study, 66 percent of employees report

that they have little to no interaction

with their bosses, up 13 percent from

last years report.Although 67 percent of workers re-

ported that they get too little positive

feedback, theyre not just after words

of recognition. Another 51 percent of

employees said that they get too little

constructive criticism from their bosses.

Perhaps the most surprising finding

was the extent to which employees are

desperate for feedback, says Mark Mur-

phy, CEO and chairman of Leadership

IQ. A smart employee knows that as his

performance improves, so, too, does hisfuture. Thus, he wants highly interactive

leaders who will coach, develop, and

improve him.

But employees are not only experi-

encing a lack of feedback, the quality of

that feedback is also poor. Fifty-three

percent of employees reported that

when their bosses do praise them, the

information to help them repeat their

performance is insufficient. In addition,

65 percent of workers say that when

they are criticized by their bosses, they

dont get enough information to correct

the problem.

Murphy admits that the recession

has exacerbated the problem of a lack

of meaningful engagement between

supervisor and worker. In the past

few years, companies have spent too

much time and money trying to make

their employees happy, and not nearly

enough energy trying to make their em-

ployees great.

He notes that once the economy

turned sour, all of the bonuses and extras

disappeared, and managers started

avoiding employees, following the age-

old adage, If you dont have something

nice to say, dont say anything at all.

Many employers were not prepared to

answer many of the tough questions

coming in from their staff, even though

the time to be communicative became

imperative within the stress and anxiety-ridden workplace atmosphere.

Murphy also adds that managers

generally arent taught how to give ac-

tionable feedback. If an employee does

a brilliant job writing a report, and her

manager says, Great job, how is that

employee supposed to know what spe-

cific things she should do again?

Seeing as how only 21 percent of

employees reported that they know

their job performance is where it

should be, Murphy recommends sev-eral strategies to help managers boost

their feedback skills. He notes that

managers should roughly double the

time they spend interacting with their

employees and make all feedback,

Please BossMe AroundWorkers would prefer some more face time withtheir direct managers. By Aparna Nancherla

The BIG Number

66%of employees reportthat they have toolittle interaction withtheir bosses.

22 | T+D | DECEMBER 2009

whether positive or negative, highly

specific and behaviorally explicit.

To make feedback powerful, he says,Managers need to give feedback often

(before it balloons into a bigger is-

sue), make it crystal clear exactly what

needs to be fixed and how, and then

avoid sugarcoating the feedback. Too

many leaders make the mistake of try-

ing to squeeze a negative performance

critique in between layers of positive

reinforcement. Its a mixed message that

gets zero results.

The survey sample consisted of 3,611

workers from 291 business and health-care organizations, the majority of which

were in the United States and Canada.

Aparna Nancherla is an associate editor for

T+D; anancherla@astd.org.

Source: Leadership IQ

>>I know whether my job performance is where it should be.(Data reects percentage of respondents.)

Stronglydisagree

DisagreeNeither

agree nordisagree

AgreeStrongly

agreeNo answer

17%

34%

27%

13%

8%

1%

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