It’s important for leaders and bosses, actually crucial, to recognize when employees stop asking for help, information, or background insight when addressing and learning about a new assignment, new client, or workplace changes.
When employees, even top talent, fail to ask or update you, it’s not because they already know their job so well. It’s because they remember the bad vibe they received the last time they asked you for help. Or, they lack insight into potential challenges or opportunities. Or, it’s because they have simply given up.
Silence is rarely about whether or not your employees knowing their job. It’s almost always about psychological safety, trust, or past experiences.
A few of the many red flags to pay attention to and resolve:
- Drop in quality
- Errors rise
- Morale erodes
- Attitude shift from positive to neutral or negative
- Assignments are late
- Team members or customers are complaining
As the leader and boss, being proactive can prevent upsets, frustrations, and miscommunication. Ignoring the red flags only widens the communication gap and makes a good employee-leader relationship harder.
Solutions to Resolve an Employee’s Lack of Communication
Communication Is Required for Successful Employee-Boss Interactions
When making new assignments, or when there has been a change in client engagements, even slight, it’s important to have a pow‑wow and talk through these small but never insignificant changes. Even if it is about a co‑worker or team issue, talking it out instead of waiting it out keeps people communicating and intended results occurring. Silence grows in spaces where leaders assume instead of ask.
Solution: Embrace the tough conversations; these can offer the greatest rewards. Get in communication with your executive coach if you’re concerned about what and how to do this.
The Employee Was Moved to a Different Position or Given Responsibilities That Don’t Fit Them
Too often, we ignore job fit as an important component of someone’s success in the job. But when you place employees in jobs that don’t fit them, silence ensues. Misalignment creates insecurity, and insecurity shuts down communication. Not only does this diminish the employee feeling valued, it’s the most expensive and overlooked issue in companies today.
Ask these questions, “Have you placed:
- A detail‑oriented person in a high‑ambiguity role?
- A creative thinker in repetitive tasks?
- A technical expert into a manager role?
- A conflict‑averse employee in a negotiation role?”
These scenarios don’t support their growth, and they will avoid you out of fear of you finding out they are failing.
One company took a top‑producing inside sales person and placed him in an outside sales role in a different state per the employee’s request. He failed miserably, and the few times he asked for help, the boss didn’t know how to help him since he didn’t have objective data to guide him or the knowledge of how to best coach the person. The employee eventually took a job with a competitor. Job fit isn’t optional … it’s foundational.
Solution: Get employees back in jobs that naturally fit them, even if they made the request for a job change. Without objective data, you cannot make a valid decision and will make an error in changing their job.
Check in on You: A Change in Your Leadership Habits
Answer these questions:
- Are you normally good at responding to your employees? But now are short-tempered.
- Do you keep the door open for their questions? But now keep it closed?
- Have you had a difficult interaction with your boss, board, co‑workers, or other team members?
- Have you failed to get the issue resolved?
- Have you experienced a personal or professional failure or mistake?
If you’ve answered yes to more than one of these questions, its impacting employees feeling comfortable talking with you. Yes, really. Remember, nonverbal communication accounts for more than 90 percent of what someone is communicating (gestures, tone, energy level).
Leaders and bosses love to think staying quiet about their own challenges protect their employees, and hope the issue resolve itself. It rarely does. Staying quiet and withdrawing actually leaks into other areas of your leadership and management styles. Employees stop wanting to talk with you since you’re not focused on them, just yourself. Your silence signals that communication isn’t valued, even if that’s not your intention.
Solution: Hire an executive coach and get this handled ASAP. Waiting only makes it worse and can take a small issue and balloon it into a huge one.
© Jeannette Seibly 2026 All Rights Reserved
Jeannette Seibly is a Leadership Results Coach, Talent Advisor, and Business Author with 33 years of experience guiding leaders and executives to achieve exceptional results. She delivers practical coaching and innovative solutions for hiring, leadership development, and performance success. Successful leaders have coaches—connect with Jeannette to elevate your results and impact in 2026.
Communication is the backbone of any employee‑leader/boss relationship. If an employee has gone quiet, it’s up to you to resolve the issue. Contact me for a confidential conversation to identify the gaps and strengthen your impact as a leader.