 Having team members or employees not listening to you is so frustrating. Being ignored at work is never nice at the best of times. And if you have to deal with employees who don't listen, it can knock your confidence, impact the team overall and certainly create negative feelings that help no one. I share seven ways to deal with employees who don't listen. Try them all and put into practice what works best for you. Don't forget that different approaches can work better in different situations and with different people. So do try a mix of them. My name is Jess Coles and I've had a 25-year management career in corporates and household names through to SMEs. Incentivising people to listen and taking what is being said are essential skills for any manager. I've used each of the seven ways very effectively for years in large corporates through to building sites and they work with pretty much anyone. If you're new to this channel, enhance.training shares business and people management expertise to help you improve your performance and that of your team and business. And if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe. So the first way to deal with employees who don't listen is to match your communication style to their learning style. We all take in information in different ways and have different learning preferences. Four different learning styles are firstly visual, such as reading books. Secondly, oral, so being verbally told things or using audio books. Thirdly, pictorial, so looking at diagrams, graphical information and similar. And then fourth, sort of the active hands on you. You just want to use your hands and get on and do it and experience it. And of course we all have our preferred ways of communicating to others. Think about how you're communicating to the team member who doesn't listen to you and try out different communication styles. Match up the communication style that best gets the employee's attention and gives them the best chance of taking in what you're telling them. Flexing your style helps you get what you want and helps the team member who doesn't listen properly. The second way to deal with employees who ignore you is take a look at your own behaviour. If you're being ignored at work or what you ask for or say is only getting lip service, then take a look at your own behaviour. I can't emphasise enough how important it is for managers to get to know themselves. So are you listening to the individuals and team members and taking in what you're being told? Are you acting on what you're being told in any visible way to the team? I mean if you don't listen to what the team members are saying, why should they listen to you? Another point to think about, who is going to benefit from what you're asking the team member to do? i.e. are you answering the what is in it for them question? If the task is going to benefit the team and the company, then indirectly this benefits the person in the team. If you still don't understand why the employee is ignoring what you say or the team members don't listen to you, then ask them for feedback. Ask them, is there something that you're trying to tell me that I haven't taken in yet? Or is there something that I don't understand or I'm missing which is making you reluctant to undertake X? Look after your employees, listen to them and treat them with respect, and you are much more likely to be listened to and treated with respect in return. The third way to deal with employees who don't listen is to highlight the why and the impact. When you're asking someone to do something, a colleague, a team member or any stakeholder, then explain why you're asking them to do something and explain the impact of doing or not doing the activity requested. For them not understanding the why you're asking something or the impact can lead to employees who don't listen or don't take in what you're asking, they just don't understand the importance of what you're asking. Make sure you go through the why and the impact on them personally, the team and the company. Try to frame your explanation in reference to what they do day to day and what they need to deliver day in day out. They will be able to relate to what you say much more easily as a result. Explaining the why is a very effective step when you are not being listened to at work. The fourth way to deal with employees who ignore you is to ask for a summary and input from them. When I have a team member who doesn't listen I love asking them questions and waiting for them to answer. This puts the spotlight on them and drives their engagement and interaction with you. Ask questions like would you mind giving me a quick summary of how you'll go about achieving this goal or task? Or it could be can you tell me how long it will take you to deliver each part of the project? Or it could be how do you think this will benefit you, the team and the business? Or it could be how should we approach solving this problem? Or what problems do you think we will encounter with this approach? Ask some questions that gets them thinking and requires them to tell you their views and ideas. Get them to provide a summary of what you have requested. If you consistently do this you won't struggle with being ignored at work or having team members who don't listen. The fifth way to deal with employees who don't listen is to ask them to make a decision. When you encounter team members who don't listen or just don't take in what you're saying providing them with several potential options and ask them to decide on their preferred option and to explain why they have chosen that one. You get to frame the potential solutions thereby providing direction. You get their input and you get their buy-in because they are choosing the solution. You kill several birds with one approach. To make a decision the employees who don't listen have to take in what you're saying. Think about it and provide a reasoned decision. You will quickly find out how much they're listening to you or not. And don't let them get away with bland answers or giving you a choice without the reasoning behind it. If you allow them to get away with this the first time you set a bad precedent. Don't let them off the hook. Make sure that they give you a proper answer. And getting their input and ideas may well provide you with a better overall solution. This helps everyone. So be nice and be assertive. Ask their opinion and for their decision on the options you present to them. This is a great way to tackle employees who don't listen. The sixth way to deal with employees who ignore you is put what is agreed in writing. Everything we take in is coloured by our reference points and hopes and fears. This is basic human behaviour. When something is agreed verbally there will be differences in what exactly has been agreed in the minds of each party. Over time these differences will become bigger and bigger as some remember one thing and others something else. Put the action points or the activity agreed and the goals in writing to the individual. This creates a fixed reference point for both parties to get common understanding and agree now and in the days and months to come. It takes five minutes to put together and send an email and you can print this off and bring what is agreed to your one-to-one meetings. And by following up you're reminding the employee what has been agreed and demonstrating its importance to you. This makes it important to the employee if they want to keep you happy. When you put deliverables into writing you also have the groundwork to deal with underperforming employees. Take a look at our video on managing underperformers. The seventh way to deal with employees who don't listen is to create consequences. When you take employees through the why and the impact you are outlining the consequences of inaction. By putting deliverables into writing you're again making the request more formal and creating a reference email or document. Most people understand how this could be used if they don't do anything. You can be more explicit if you are dealing with a difficult employee and spell out the consequences of not delivering against mutually agreed goals in a reasonable timeframe or to reasonable quality levels. Yet the consequences could be no bonus or a personal improvement plan or even asking the individual into a disciplinary process which could result in them losing their job. For some using a stick as well as carrots is necessary to motivate them into action. The seven ways we've gone through have all been tried and tested in many situations and across a huge range of people. We go without saying they work best when you choose the right approach for the right person and the right situation. That being said each of these will work perfectly well in isolation when put into practice with confidence and consideration. Try out each of the seven ways outlined. Get confident in using them and judging how best to use each. And if you have any questions please leave them in the comments section below and I'll get back to you. Thanks very much for watching and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.