Welcome back for Part Two of my three-part leadership series.

In Part One, we established that a crucial foundation leaders must develop is their soft skills, which are incredibly valuable but equally tricky to implement.

Soft skills come in various forms, including:

• Communication
• Conflict management
• Decision-making
• Motivation
• Teamwork
• Problem-solving

By understanding what soft skills are and how developing them can create a world-class leader, we can begin to combat a growing epidemic in the global work culture – workforce engagement.  

What is Workforce Engagement?

According to Gallup’s 2024 Global State of the Workplace report, when it comes to Americans in the workplace:

• 33% are engaged
• 51% are not engaged
• 16% are actively disengaged

This data reveals that most employees in the workplace are not actively invested in fulfilling the goals and mission of the company. This has larger implications when it comes to reliability. 

But what is causing this epidemic of declining employee engagement? In that same report, Gallup found that 70% of the variance in employee engagement can be attributed to the managers tasked with leading the various teams.  

At the 2024 Reliable Plant Conference, I hosted a leadership session called “From Task Manager to Effective Leader: The People Business Paradigm.” During this session, we focused on two methods necessary for engaging employees:

1. The C.U.P. Method of Feedback, which involves Celebrating, Updating, and Planning.
2. The A.R.T. of Asking Great Questions, which involves Articulating, Removing, and Transforming.

To understand more about how these workforce engagement challenges affect facilities across America and how leaders attempt to overcome them, I sat down with two industry leaders for a chat.

The Impacts of Workforce Engagement

As in Part One, I sat down again with Kevin Keith and Erik Forbus to get into the minds of leaders with boots on the ground and understand how concerns over workforce engagement are influencing their leadership efforts.

Interview with Kevin Keith, Lubrication Specialist at Blue Buffalo in Richmond, Indiana.

JODY PARSONS: Regarding your work with employees, what approach do you find most effective for communicating with your team members?  

KEVIN KEITH: I’ve found that when I’m asked a question, it’s crucial for me to provide not only the “what” but the “why.” For example, if a technician asks me, “What oil do I put in this gearbox?” I’ll give them the direct “what” answer, but then I’ll go beyond that and tell them why we use that specific oil. This helps them develop a deeper understanding of our processes, which allows them to become more knowledgeable and engaged in their work.

JODY: How often does that scenario happen?

KEVIN: At least two times a week, and it’s always a different person and situation. This allows these conversations to be a learning opportunity not only for them but for myself as well.

JODY: What would it look like if a question from a technician got a question back from you in response?

KEVIN: In my experience, it really depends on how the question is worded. This can be helpful for increasing critical thinking skills, but you have to ask it in a way that even if they don’t know the answer, they see that you’re just trying to help.

By asking follow-up questions when we are asked something, we help our team to think more critically about the issue and expand their knowledge of why something is done. They begin to feel more empowered and take pride in their knowledge and work, helping them become more actively engaged.

JODY: What complicates asking questions rather than just giving answers?

KEVIN: It’s easier to give a short answer and walk away than to have a coaching conversation. It requires more effort and time. But, while it’s easier to just give a short yes or no answer, asking follow-up questions and putting in the extra effort will produce better results. By showing you are invested, your team will become more invested, too.

JODY: If we apply Gallup’s engagement research to your work, then 51% of your technicians are currently disengaged. You ask a lot of “why” questions, but how would adding more “what” and “how” questions help change that?

KEVIN: When someone is disengaged at work, you need to realize that they have personal reasons for this, which can drastically change from person to person. You need to figure out the root cause of the individual’s disengagement, and it could be a mix of factors, including a lack of empowerment or appreciation at work or even personal problems outside of work. All of these affect everyone in different ways.

While most people assume these questions only apply to work topics, “what” and “how” can be invaluable for understanding the personal reasons why someone is disengaged. You could ask, “I’ve noticed you’re withdrawn today; what’s going on?” or “I’ve noticed you missed two days last week; how can I help?” All it takes is an honest, open conversation.

Interview with Erik Forbus, Maintenance Planner and Scheduler for Cardinal Corporation in Waxahachie, Texas

JODY PARSONS: Regarding your work with employees, what approach do you find most effective for communicating with your team members? 

ERIK FORBUS: I’m looking at communication from their perspective. Most technicians are constantly putting out fires and handling things on the fly. The longer they take, the more production backs up, so they are just trying to get the machine operating again.

At that point, it’s more muscle memory fixes and tunnel vision than discovering and learning. By the time they can fix one problem, they have another to solve, meaning they don’t have time to ask “what” and “how”, which are crucial for active engagement.

JODY: Are there any scenarios you often find yourself in at work where you could ask more “what” and “how” questions or give more feedback as a teaching/coaching moment?

ERIK: When communicating with technicians and their supervisors, our conversations largely revolve around me trying to guide them using a planned perspective; this means utilizing data to help move from a reactive to a proactive maintenance program.

However, the technicians and supervisors operate using their combined experiences – meaning they have one idea of what is most important, and the data I use can oftentimes contradict this. For the most part, I’m bringing something to the table that they haven’t tried before, and that works against what their experiences and best judgment tell them.

I want to start asking more “what” and “how” questions in these situations to communicate these changes better and encourage active engagement with the process and adjustments.

JODY: What other opportunities are there for you to utilize “what” and “how” questions effectively to help engage team members?

ERIK: Most technicians take my guidance, but where I get tangled with remembering to ask questions is when it comes to our Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS). Part of my responsibility is to be the Subject Matter Expert (SME) on that system, so I get a lot of questions on how to use it – “Where do I find this?” “How do you do this?”

That’s where I struggle. Typically, when the answer is simple, the questions I ask are telling them the answer. So, if the answer is “the vault,” I’ll ask, “Have you looked in the vault?” Instead, I need to ask, “What place do we have for storing documents?”

Stay Tuned for Part 3

In Part Two of my three-part series, we took a deeper look into what it means when team members are disengaged from their work, and how this can pose a threat to companies achieving their visions and missions. But, through effective communication tactics, leaders can cultivate opportunities for re-engagement through education and thoughtful questioning.

In Part Three, we talk with Kevin and Erik for the final time and see what results they’ve experienced with reliability and maintenance culture by implementing thought-provoking questions and adjusting communication tactics for increased workforce engagement.

Stay tuned – Part Three is coming soon.

Did you miss Part One? Read the article here.