This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 472 How to Affirm and Validate to Keep Employees Happy and Heard.
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This is Real Business English, with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Michelle, coming to you from New York City and Colorado, USA.
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Hey, Michelle, how's it going?
Everything's good, Lindsay.
How are you?
Good.
I'm glad to be here.
What are we talking about today on Business English?
Yeah.
Well, this is a really important topic.
So, Lindsay, how do you encourage people to bring up new ideas or just feel open talking in general?
Because it's really important to have a foster an open atmosphere.
It's so important, Michelle.
I think it's the vibe that you give off after they do say something.
Right.
It's so matters how we respond.
Yes.
It doesn't matter necessarily what we think of the idea.
It's about encouraging the fact that they spoke up, because it does take a bit of courage as an employee maybe a new employee in a company to raise your hand and say here's my idea.
Right?
Yeah.
Right.
Exactly.
That's a really good point.
See, I just did it.
Oh, thank you.
I feel so affirmed.
But today we're going to talk about how to do this in the workplace, especially when you're told something important or maybe even something sensitive, that the person may feel a little uncomfortable or awkward about right.
Because you want to show your support.
You want people to keep You know, sharing what they need to share, right?
Yes, 100%.
This is an incredibly important.
It's, you know, it's again, it's affirming that they've that they've spoken up.
It is encouraging that open environment for anyone who's in a leadership position or will soon be eventually be in one.
We need this skill.
Yes, exactly.
So before we get into it, though, we wanted to say a huge thank you to our reviewers.
Yes, I have two very special names.
And both of these are five star reviews, by the way, Michelle.
Amazing.
Great.
These are wonderful.
So a special thank you to UJ Lee, who reviewed us on August 22nd.
And thank you to Tommy Tarta, who reviewed us on August 19th.
Huge thank you to those amazing listeners.
Thank you.
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Okay.
Perfect.
Love it.
Thank you guys so much.
All right.
So let's go through this.
Again, we're talking about how to encourage someone to keep speaking, right?
They've been a little vulnerable.
Maybe they're sharing something that's going on, something they notice.
So the first one is, I'm glad you brought that up.
Yeah.
So for example, this might sound like this.
I'm glad you brought that up.
We need to look into this further.
OK, so you're so what you're doing here is you're you're like you're making them feel heard.
You're showing them validating it.
Exactly.
You're affirming, validating and showing them that what they said matters.
Right.
Yes, exactly.
What's the next one, Lindsay?
You could say thank you for bringing this to my attention, or thank you for bringing that to my attention.
Yeah.
Exactly.
So, wow, I didn't know all of this.
Thank you for bringing that to my attention.
I will take action immediately.
Right.
That's very professional.
Sounds formal, right?
This one sounds a little formal.
I may be almost written.
Could be.
Yeah.
But right.
Maybe written.
This could be an email reply or something.
But sometimes we need to be a little bit more formal.
Right.
Yeah.
Especially in business.
I mean we talk about sometimes in business, like we're not robots, but sometimes we do choose to have a more formal way of speaking.
And I also think that, depending on the content of what someone's sharing, that could merit an increased level of formality.
You know what I mean?
Like if someone sharing that, like I don't know, some kind of harassment's going on at the workplace.
Right.
You might become more formal just because it becomes a very sensitive topic and you're wanting to make sure I don't know that you're treating them with respect.
So we up our formality levels in that case.
Right.
You have to be able to, it's interesting.
Yeah.
That's a really interesting point of having to adjust to kind of go with this flow and adjust.
That's why we teach you so many different ways to say something, because it is important to have those tools.
So yeah, if somebody is telling you something serious, you don't want to say something like, Cool.
I'm glad you told me.
Right.
Exactly.
That's the point.
Right.
Because you have to make those shifts.
Like a world, life-changing thing.
Right.
Like it could be a huge thing that is making their lives miserable or something, and then they're sharing that with you.
You have to meet it with the same level of gravity, in a sense.
Yes.
Exactly.
Or here's another pretty formal one.
So, I appreciate you're telling me this, or...
You could say, I appreciate your whatever it is, your X. I appreciate your honesty.
I appreciate your opinion.
Yes.
Right.
And I love how this is the Y-O-U-R.
Right.
So this is an interesting grammar form here that I feel like a lot of native speakers don't know this.
Yeah.
I appreciate your and then verb plus I-N-G.
Right.
I appreciate your opening up to me about your team's lack of cohesion.
I will see if I can mediate.
I appreciate your telling me.
Y-O-U-R and then verb plus I-N-G.
Again, not something all native speakers know.
Yes.
No.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So again, really just showing the person that you are validating them and, in here, that you're going to do something, take action.
This is really, really important in the workplace, especially if you are in that leadership position and you want your employees to respect you, to feel comfortable coming to you.
Yes, 100%.
Love it.
Yes.
Okay, Michelle.
So we are on to another option for our listeners to have lots of options.
So thank you for mentioning that.
So this one's a little bit shorter.
Again, we can respond.
The length can depend on what they've shared.
Maybe the person has just given you a compliment in your presentation and they just said hey, you did a really awesome job presenting the value prop for the new product.
I just want to tell you, nice job.
You might say, thank you for mentioning that, you know?
Right, right.
So this one can kind of go a little less formal, a little bit more conversational.
Thank you for mentioning that.
I had no idea that was going on, right?
So maybe they told you about some numbers that were being missed or something like that.
Maybe not...
You know, just I had no idea that was going on.
Sure.
Totally.
So that one works for a lot of different contexts.
Yes.
Last one for today.
Thank you for raising that or thank you for raising this issue.
And again, raising it means what, Michelle?
Bringing it up.
Bringing it up.
For saying it, for putting attention on it.
Yeah.
Yep.
So here's a sample sentence.
Thank you for raising this issue.
You're right.
We need to find a better way to conduct these operations moving forward.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
I mean, Lindsay, to me, it shows your employees that you're open, makes them feel calm.
Maybe they were afraid to bring something up.
Yeah.
What else, Lindsay?
Anything else you want to highlight about this?
I think it would help for employee retention as well, because employees need to feel like they are taking part in the success of the company.
And if you, if you go in a certain, there's a lot of scenarios that someone could be presenting with these phrases.
Right.
It could be something bad that's going on, but it also could be like a strategic suggestion.
You know, oh, we're not targeting millennials.
And I really think we need to be because they're actually the users of our product.
Right.
Then you might things might shift in the business based on that insight.
And that will help to retain your team, because they feel like they're actually changing things, the company, they're having an impact.
Impact is huge, right?
Right.
And you need that language.
I mean, if you're, if somebody is telling you their opinion, you just go, okay.
Um, you know, they're going to feel that they're, they're not going to feel valued.
They're not going to want to share their ideas or, open up about something going on at work.
So exactly, exactly.
And then eventually, they're going to leave, right?
So that's how we.
So it's not just, you know, making someone feel okay in the moment.
It's about building a team, a long term team that like, grows and does well in the marketplace, right.
Yes, yes, yes, exactly.
So All right.
Let's do a role play.
We're not going to use every single thing here, but we're going to use a bunch.
All right.
So here I am, your supervisor, and you're coming to me because you feel something needs to be restructured on the team project.
Okay.
Here we go.
Okay.
All right.
All right.
So how's it going?
Honestly, I think it's going well, but I think we need to make some changes.
Oh, really?
Yes.
Well...
My team is a little unclear about the technical aspect of the project.
It's not really where our strengths lie.
So we're all open to learning, but is there someone you think we could also add to our group to help with this?
I'm glad you brought this up, Michelle.
I know you guys are a bit short-staffed on this.
Yeah, and we really want to work hard and get it done.
I get it.
Listen, I appreciate you're telling me this.
I wouldn't want you to get overwhelmed when I can easily add another person to your team.
Oh, thank you so much.
Thank you for raising the issue.
Yeah, and that's the thing.
If you don't speak up at work, it might actually be easier than you think to solve the problem right.
But don't suffer in silence.
Right.
Yes, exactly.
So, I mean, I think, how do you think I felt as the employee here?
Seems like you felt validated, right?
It seems like you, yeah, you probably, I'm guessing like a big...
Exhale, right?
Right, right, exactly.
Because this sounds like a pretty important thing.
I mean to feel like you don't have somebody who can really take on a certain part of the project.
You feel like it's not.
Something is missing.
And to bring this up, I mean, yeah, you could respond and say, no, right?
We don't, this is what we have to work with.
So, yeah, let's let's go through what you did say to help with this.
All right.
So you let me know that you need someone that sort of has those technical skills.
And then I said, I'm glad you brought this up, Michelle.
And I used your name, which is strategic.
Right.
That's strategic and a way of building connection.
Yep.
And then, uh, you said, I appreciate your telling me this.
Yes.
And again, that is that your plus I N G form of the verb.
Okay.
I appreciate your telling not, you are not not, not you.
Plus, are your the possessive.
You're telling me this.
Good.
Right.
And then you said, thank you so much.
And you seem a bit lighter in that moment, right?
Yes.
Yes.
And then you said, oh, sorry.
Well, and I said, thank you for raising the issue.
Yeah.
Yes, exactly.
So, yeah, really nice exchange there.
If you're going to be like that, right as my employer, then I'm just going to really feel comfortable.
I'm not going to feel tense every time I come to you.
Definitely.
Yeah.
It doesn't mean that as the leader that you have to say yes to everything.
Right.
It's not about then saying, oh, sure.
Yeah, we can do this.
And being afraid to be able to tell someone no.
It's not about that.
Yes.
But it is.
You could say yes.
I'm glad you brought this up, Michelle.
I know you're a bit short-staffed on this.
Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do, but I do appreciate your telling me.
Even if you're giving bad news, right?
Right.
That's a really good point.
I love that, Michelle.
Yeah.
But these are still going to help soften the blow, still make the person feel comfortable and show that you care.
You see them.
That's a really good point because I can tell you it can feel overwhelming sometimes.
Sometimes, when a team member comes to you with an idea or something that needs to be changed and you're already stretched really thin right.
Maybe as a leader in your position and you don't know how to solve the problem in the moment, or you don't feel like you have the bandwidth to solve the problem in the moment.
It's okay right, you can give some kind of a timeline.
Or you can, like you said michelle, you can even say i'm not sure how to handle this now.
I will get back to you and you can make a promise of when you'll readdress that.
But the point is, you're affirming what they've shared.
You're not necessarily promising that you'll solve everything, because it's not realistic, right?
Yes yes, exactly.
So um, really important skill here.
So guys, If you haven't already, check out episode 466 of the Business English podcast.
This was a fun one.
It was, can you still say it costs an arm and a leg?
Yeah, we need to know what slang is outdated, going the way of all those old slang phrases, and which ones are still legitimate and relevant in the workplace.
So Michelle, what's the takeaway for today?
And I think we kind of shared it.
Yeah.
Just being a good leader is hearing your employees, right?
It doesn't mean you have to be just a rollover, but it does mean that you have to show that you hear them and that you appreciate them.
And then whatever comes after that, Even if it's a no, even if it's a I'll get back to you later it's still going to be better with these types of ways to begin the interaction.
I love that.
So good.
So guys, don't forget to leave a review for Business English.
Let us know what you think of the show.
And Michelle, thanks for being here.
We'll be back very soon.
All right, Lindsay, thanks for chatting with me today.
And guys, thank you for listening.
Take care.
Bye.
Bye.
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