When your messages lack cut through and you’re not gaining any traction with your audience no matter what you do, then it’s time to understand these 5 common barriers to effective engagement:

1. Not asking the right questions!

When we don’t take the time to stop and ask our stakeholders the right questions (or any questions!), we have no chance of understanding what they may need or want. You can not base a relationship on assumptions. Ask from the ground up. Ask and ask again.

2. Not listening to the answer (or anything!)

So, you’ve asked the question and they said exactly what you thought they were going to say, right? Or did they? We are very good at only hearing what we want to hear. To actively listen means to get very quiet and very curious.

3. Not understanding the fundamentals of communication, engagement and relationship building

There are fundamental principles and patterns to effective communication and engagement, and the good news is you can learn them.

4. Not empowering your team to engage or make decisions

Believe it or not, control is a tool to? you guessed it, control something! When we use control instead of educating and upskilling our people, we prevent them from being able to build their own effective relationships and make decisions. Instead, you just added another barrier to stakeholder’s getting what they want.

5. Not taking action

We asked and we listened, now what? Creating a series of actions that not only satisfy your stakeholder’s needs and wants, but build a long lasting and effective relationship, is the critical next step, but you don’t know where to start so you simply, do nothing.

From interviewing and listening to thousands of stakeholders on behalf of our clients and creating actionable plans to uplift engagement and create meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships, these are the barriers we uncover almost every time. So, what now? Next time on the blog, we’ll share the LKB steps to great engagement.