You hold another team meeting. You've over caffeinated, been going from one meeting to another. An hour has been allotted for the meeting. You feel organized and all you need is for the team to engage and hold constructive dialogue. You want engagement. You want sincere constructive conversation. You want to end the meeting with alignment on what, when and how next steps are going to happen.
The meeting ends. You feel unease. There wasn't much dialogue. No push back. Everyone nodded in some form of agreement. You are left feeling concerned and uncertain about the commitment to deliver action items by agreed upon dates.
Action dates come and go. Another meeting. You sense anxiousness and apathy all at the same time from team members. A few excuses surface. Someone articulates dependencies that weren't delivered. You walk out of the meeting saying "this feels like herding cats."
Have you ever been the quietest person in one room, and the most contributive in another?
The same person can be silent in one team and full of ideas in another.
The difference is not talent. Yes, a person's talent design is at the core. But the behavioral demands of the environment are dictating the level of engagement by team members. The rewards of the environment are also impacting engagement.
You've probably recently heard the term psychological safety. We know employee engagement is tied to safety.
The correlation between high engagement and high psychological safety is well documented.
But what creates high psychological safety for one person can be very different for someone else. The needs vary widely.
It doesn't seem helpful to simply say we need to do a better job developing our managers.
Project managers, team leads and key organizational influencers need a better understanding of human behavior.
So "let's hold a manager development workshop and teach them about DISC behavioral styles". They get to learn more about self and others. The DISC report was "spot on". You get kudos from almost all of the participants. You can check that box. Right?
Six months go by. You've lost a valuable team member who left for a "better opportunity". Team and project milestone dates are still slipping. Team members aren't engaging at a higher constructive level. Team performance is just so-so. Individual performance isn't much better. You're thinking "Maybe I need to make some staffing changes."
To say "Psychological safety is the path to healthy, constructive and productive employee engagement" is perhaps one of those most important truths in organizational life.
Quick judgement of "them". When someone is quiet in meetings, judgments form quickly.
They are not confident. Not engaged. Not leadership material.
And often, none of that is true.
They are simply reading the room accurately.
They have learned what happens to people who disagree here.
They have watched an idea get dismissed and remembered the feeling.
They have noticed whose voice gets amplified (less credible people perhaps) and whose gets interrupted.
Silence is rarely the absence of thought.
It is usually the presence of risk assessment.
Let's get back to that super duper DISC workshop. What was the goal - to make all managers armchair psychologists? What was very likely missing was a strategic and powerful leader/manager communication model. Yes, most organizations teach the importance of behavioral insights for both self and others in management development programs.
But less attention is spent honing intentional, strategic communication skills. In fact, communication skills are so critical, at The Nielson Group, we've gone beyond manager workshops to deliver the same communication skills training to our clients' teams. What happened? We consistently see a very significant rise in employee engagement surveys, lower turnover, higher job satisfaction, AND greater organizational success.
Before labelling someone as disengaged, ask what this environment (including manager communication skills) has taught them about speaking up.
The best ideas in your organization may already exist, unspoken, in the minds of people who do not feel safe enough to offer them.
Psychological safety is not about comfort. It is about whether honesty carries a cost.
It is very likely the talent is almost always already in the room.
The question is whether the room allows it to surface.
Look at your quietest team member this week.
And ask yourself honestly:
Is that who they are, or is that who we have made it safe for them to be?
Our solution, delivered throughout the United States
The Nielson Group has combined Coach U's gold-standard manager-as-coach framework, best-in-class leader talent assessments, the Situational Leadership model and the Reina Trust model into one highly engaging and impactful program. The Nielson Group is a licensed facilitator of The Coaching Clinic, a premier two- or three-day leader and manager training program developed by Coach U to replace traditional command-and-control management with an empowering, coach-approach style.
Carl Nielson takes this foundational content to the next level with in-depth manager talent assessments and integrates cornerstone concepts including The Reina Trust model and Hersey and Blanchard's Situational Leadership model, a flexible management framework where leaders adapt their behavior to match an employee's specific competence and commitment level for a particular task. Developed by Dr. Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard in 1969, the theory states that there is no single "best" style of leadership. Instead, effective leaders evaluate the unique needs of the person in front of them and adjust (adapt) their level of direction (task behavior) and support (relationship behavior).
The Integrated Leadership Advantage Development Program Overview & Audience
Target Audience: Executives, managers, supervisors, human resources professionals (including HRBPs), team leaders, PMO leaders and project managers.
Core Purpose: To train leaders to integrate coaching skills into everyday workplace conversations, boosting employee engagement, retention, and overall team performance.
Industry Standard: The Coaching Clinic is widely recognized as a gold standard framework for transforming corporate culture and building accountability in a two-day workshop format. The Nielson Group takes it to another dimension with a 3-or 4-day workshop. We customize to meet your needs and goals.
Program Structure & Methodology (every proposal is customized to your needs, goals and budget)
The 5-Step Coaching Conversation Model: Participants are trained in a structured methodology covering:
- Establish Focus
- Discover Possibilities
- Remove Barriers
- Acknowledge Awareness
- Plan to Action
Experiential Learning: Features real-world peer coaching practice sessions, interactive exercises, and best-in-class leader assessments (personalized behavioral communication style inventory, personal motivators, acumen, EQ and DNA 25). Depending on the scope and needs, our customized proposals can ensure all participants also receive one-on-one assessment debriefings and direct feedback from certified Coaching Clinic facilitators.
Action Planning: Attendees depart with a customized integration plan to immediately apply coaching techniques to performance discussions and daily work management.
The Nielson Group team and leader development services has also adapted the The Coaching Clinic, Reina Trust model and assessments into a powerful all-employee team development program and offers one-on-one assessment and debriefing services, including boss-subordinate-consultant triads.
To discuss your needs and receive a customized proposal, schedule an information session with Carl Nielson at https://my.timetrade.com/book/2L3GC.
#leadershipdevelopment #thecoachingclinic #ttisuccessinsights #tti #leaderascoach #teamdevelopment #employeeengagement #thenielsongroup #managerdevelopment #teamassessments #employeeengagementsurveys #highperformingteams #teamperformance #talentassessments #disc #communicationskills