Ask Your People What They Need

No one knows what it requires to do the job more than the person who is doing it. Leaders who forget that lose touch with their employees, and their businesses begin to fail. It rarely happens all at once. It starts quietly, with decisions made at the top that no longer match what is happening on the ground.

Too many leaders still run their organizations from the top down. They set direction, assign work and measure results, but they rarely stop to ask the people doing the work what they need to do it well. Over time, this creates silos. Trust erodes. Loyalty fades. People stop offering ideas because no one asked for them the last time.

The fix is simpler than most leaders think. Ask.

Why Asking Matters More Now

Work has changed faster in the last few years than most leadership habits have. The tools, the teams and the expectations around them keep shifting, and the leader's view from the top is usually the last to catch up. Leaders can no longer assume they understand what their people are experiencing simply because they once did the same job.

The cost of that disconnect is visible. Gallup reported that U.S. employee engagement fell to 31% in 2024, its lowest level in a decade. Disengagement is not always a sign that people do not care. Often it is a sign that they have stopped believing anyone is listening.

The people closest to the work see the problems first. That is a practical fact too many organizations ignore, and they pay for it in ideas that never surface.

What I Learned Leading a Merger

As an executive at a seafood company, I once led the integration of two very different operating units, one in Seattle and one in New Bedford, Massachusetts. When I arrived in New Bedford, I asked for a chart of the entire organization, about 5,000 people, with everyone's name, their significant others and even their pets.

Then I spent weeks asking long-tenured employees, people with about 20 years in the business on average, what they thought about the future. My own executive team resisted the idea. But those employees had never been asked, and giving them a voice is a big part of why the integration worked.

I also hosted monthly town hall meetings. I could not always answer every question, but listening and keeping the dialogue transparent minimized the mystery and limited the gossip in the hallways.

Employees were informed, trust was built and productivity returned to normal levels. The lesson stayed with me: people can handle uncertainty. What they cannot handle is silence. When leaders go quiet, people fill the gap with their own worst assumptions.

What Happens When You Ask

Asking employees what they need changes how people show up. Four things become possible once the question is real.

• Camaraderie and unity: When people see their input shape decisions, they begin to see themselves as part of something shared rather than as individuals competing for attention.
• Trust and empowerment: Asking signals that you believe people know their work. That belief is often what gives them the confidence to take ownership.
• Discretionary effort: Employees want to exceed expectations when they know their leader genuinely cares about their success.
• Early warning: People often hesitate to raise concerns on their own. A direct question gives them permission to say what they have been holding back.

Avoid the Internal Competition Trap

Some organizations build systems that pit employees against each other. Rankings, forced comparisons and opaque evaluations can turn colleagues into rivals. When that happens, energy that should be aimed at the marketplace gets spent on internal politics.

Asking people what they need works against that dynamic. It reminds everyone that the goal is collective success, and that the leader's job is to remove obstacles, not create new contests. When employees are focused on each other instead of on the competition, the business is already losing ground.

Make the Question a Habit

1. Make it a rhythm, not an event. A monthly forum, a standing question in one-on-ones or a short pulse check all work. Consistency matters more than format.
2. Ask specific questions. "What is slowing you down?" and "What would help you do your best work this month?" invite useful answers.
3. Admit what you do not know. You will not have every answer. Say so. Honesty builds more trust than a polished response.
4. Close the loop. Tell people what you heard and what you are doing about it. Asking without acting teaches people that asking is theater.
5. Listen for the individual. Different people need different things. Personalization is how you turn input into engagement.

Listening is the job no one writes down, but it is the one that determines whether the rest of your work succeeds.

Stay Close to the Work

The further a leader moves from the people doing the work, the more likely their decisions will miss the mark. Asking keeps you close. It keeps you informed. And it tells your people that their experience matters to the future of the business.

Do not wait for turnover, missed targets or a failed initiative to start the conversation. Ask your people what they need now, while the answers can still change the outcome.

Want to explore these ideas further? Learn more about my work on leadership, identity and conviction at www.theglennllopis.com.