3 Powerful Questions You Must Answer for Your Team or Watch Employee Disengagement Skyrocket
Most leaders never genuinely understand their team, causing irreversible employee disengagement.
Nor do they ever explain why the company executes in a certain way, causing confusion, assumptions, and, you guessed it, more disengagement. So, how do you bridge the gap, you ask?
It all comes down to three crucial questions:
North Star Why: The Big Objective Question
I stumbled in the dark for years when I started leading Skylink until I found my North Star:
"Why are we doing this?"
In the constant shuffle of the daily whirlwind, it's easy to forget the core objective. Why were we so focused on being hyper-responsive to enterprise accounts? Because that was our North Star, making it ridiculously easy to do business with us, our company's Big Objective.
If your team doesn't know the bigger why, they'll be completely disconnected from what matters, and if they don't buy into the objective, they'll be disengaged.
Regularly explain to your team the why of the business. It's the reason you're all here doing what you do best.
It can be:
Making it ridiculously easy to do business with us.
Manufacturing the highest-quality aircraft parts to ensure people travel safely.
Being the best place to work for everyone.
Making every child smile.
Alignment Why: The Clarity Questions
Now there's connecting the daily grind to the bigger picture.
"Why is this task important?" You're explaining why something aligns with a goal. You don't want people to mindlessly follow something, even though they can and often will.
It's your job as the manager to articulate why they do something.
Suddenly, stacking boxes aren't just stacking boxes — it's part of the mission of delivering exceptional products with zero damage.
If your team can't see the importance of their role in the big picture, you'll have a disengaged workforce coming in and out with glazed-over eyes.
The alignment why builds clarity into the role and solves many of the problems with employee disengagement (assuming your pay, benefits, and culture are acceptable).
Root Why: The Personal Questions
Often, businesses are extraction machines.
They want more from their people. They love to demand, "Do this," but often, damn near always, nobody asks their team,
"Why are you here?"
"What are your goals?"
"What excites you?"
What's your team's core motivation? Jocko Willink and Kim Scott propose moving beyond extraction and diving into your team's personal aspiration.
Remember, your business is a living entity that needs more than just maintenance — it needs a compelling reason to function, a clear path to follow, and, most importantly, an apparent reason why.
So, stop just making it through the day and ask, "Why?"
