So You Think You’re a Good Listener

Boss: Why is Janet leaving? Colleague: She’s been unhappy for months. Boss: Why didn’t she tell me? Colleague: She tried. Conversations like that are all too common. Why is it that bosses often seem unable to hear tough messages? A key reason, we found, is that managers have skewed perceptions about their openness to challenging news. In 360-degree surveys, managers typically rate themselves higher than their colleagues do on most measures of performance. This well-established pattern holds both for ratings of specific behaviors such as “Keeps people up-to-date with information” and for broader performance measures such as “Is an effective manager overall.” Furthermore, the most positive ratings from colleagues are typically from the managers’ bosses, followed by those from subordinates, and finally those from the most critical coworkers—their peers. Our research—based on Personnel Decisions International’s surveys of over 4,000 U.S. managers across various industries and functions—revealed an important additional pattern: The gap between managers’ self-evaluations and colleagues’ assessments is widest when it comes to gauging receptiveness to hearing about difficult issues. The difference is clear in ratings of behaviors such as “Encourages others to express their views, even contrary ones” and “Listens willingly to concerns expressed by others.” What’s behind the divide? The primary explanation, we believe, is that in most boss-subordinate relationships, superiors overestimate their openness to receiving difficult messages and simultaneously underestimate the extent to which the power difference discourages subordinates from speaking their minds. Put simply, managers often unwittingly signal that they don’t want to hear bad news—for instance, by changing the subject or avoiding interaction—and subordinates tend to censor themselves. The hazards of stifling communication are well known. Our research confirms that managers’ misperceptions—and the behaviors that reflect them—create barriers with peers and subordinates. Those obstacles inhibit the flow not only of useful bad news (for example, about quality problems or service failures) but even of positive ideas for improvement that just might be perceived as criticism. Managers should assume that they are less open to unwelcome messages than they think—and recognize that they may be sending subtle signals that discourage frank input. Many organizations are already using employee surveys to uncover general impediments to communication; we recommend that they use the kind of 360-degree surveys described here to cast the problem in sharp relief. The data that those tools generate are specific to individuals, making it hard for managers to deny that the findings apply to them.

So You Think You’re a Good Listener

Summary.

Partner Center