The Failure to Ask

I found myself in an interesting position with one of my employees this week, that reminded me of a lesson I think all business professionals could benefit from.

One of my employees has just seemed… off, for the last few weeks. They’re normally super responsive, detailed, and quick to action. But they’ve been strangely quiet, despondent, and slower than normal.

I found myself getting irritated - why weren’t they their typical self?

It’s making it difficult to work with them!

After around two weeks of this, I sent them a message and asked if they were okay, and they sent me a long message detailing some of the challenging things they were dealing with outside of work.

I immediately softened, and realized I failed to ask.

I didn’t ask them what was going on.

I assumed that it was something personal.

I made it about me, when I had no reason to assume it was.

Never fail to ask what’s going on in your employees' lives if you notice something off with them. They’ll invest in you, as much as you invest in them.