Does Your Open Door Lead to a Dead End?

Here's the scenario: An agency is experiencing unusually high voluntary attrition and overall staff engagement is low. The owner/CEO is confounded. Asked what is driving folks to the exits, the CEO shrugs, "I have no idea. I go out of my way to be available to them. They know they can always come to me."

And, it turns out, that they have been.

Employees have been frequently visiting with the boss to share their concerns:

• Their largest client is unreasonable, abusive, and impossible to manage.

• One of their suppliers has dropped the ball on three straight projects, but the production team keeps going back to them.

• A mid-level manager is spilling tea to whoever will listen and it is creating friction among employees.

• The agency has still not replaced an Account Director that left four months ago and folks are exhausted trying to fill in for her.

The issue? While the owner/CEO is always willing to lend a sympathetic ear, nothing is being done with the team's concerns.

If you want a foolproof method of killing agency culture and staff engagement, you found it. Invite your team to voice their concerns, nod politely, and then ignore them.

That is utterly demoralizing. And, let's be real, while a closed door can be frustrating, an open door that leads to a dead end feels like betrayal.

This does not mean that you need to fix everything that is brought to you. But:

• Solve what you can.

• Demonstrate some action on those issues that take time.

• And when something cannot be changed, take the time to explain to staff why that is the case.

Being approachable is not enough. Your team needs to know that you are accountable to them.

Otherwise, they will stop knocking and start walking.