Are your managers afraid of conflict? If so, it’s costing you

Unfortunately, most managers today would rather not talk about it. A study from Interact found that 69 percent of managers admitted to being “uncomfortable communicating with their employees.” Nearly 40 percent of the supervisors surveyed copped to feeling “uncomfortable having to give direct feedback/criticism about their employee’s performance that they might respond badly to.”

According to the survey, managers also struggle mightily with:

Avoiding conflict is poison for any relationship, but in the workplace, lack of clear, straightforward feedback can be a company killer. Poor manager communication remains one of the chief reasons why Gallup—every single year since 2000—has found that fewer than one-third of Americans are engaged at work.