This quote has been living rent-free in my head for the past few weeks:
People don’t think what they feel, don’t say what they think and don’t do what they say.
David Ogilvy, advertising tycoon
I think it’s true. Often, our genuine thoughts and feelings aren’t perfectly aligned with what we say and do.
In my experience, this isn’t due to any malicious intent (at least in the vast majority of cases).
It’s just that human behaviour is complex, and we don’t always examine our own thoughts and emotions in depth.
But this presents a conundrum for leaders who use engagement data to assess how their team is going.
Engagement is typically measured through surveys.
But what if people don’t always think what they feel, say what they think, or do what they say? Then engagement data could be misleading, or missing important stuff that a leader wants to know.
I still believe that team surveys are a useful tool for leaders. But this leads to the question: how else should leaders measure how their team is going?
Here’s a few methods which can help:
- Include an Employee Net Promotor Score (eNPS) question in your engagement surveys. Because of the way that eNPS data is analysed, it detects not just satisfaction, but genuine feelings of loyalty and inspiration at work.
- In addition to surveying your team members on how they are feeling, ask your team how they think their teammates are feeling.
- Keep an eye on absentee data (e.g. sick leave), and look out for any trends (outside of seasonal patterns).
