As company grows, the smaller the likelihood that everyone in it will be easy to supervise. You have the option to terminate anyone who is truly a drag on your company.
However, every HR folk knows that talent retention is quite hard. Clearly, we do not want to fire more than hire. Thus, before you decide to let off someone who is considered as bad for the company, it’s worth the effort to try and make a difficult person work more effectively within your office.
When faced with a problem personality, most of us do one of two things: We either confront the person head-on, leading to escalating hostility, or else avoid dealing with him or her and leave the problem to worsen. Neither is an effective solution.
Here’s the thing you should do: you can use a sort of communication aikido to channel troublesome employee’ own energies in ways that will benefit themselves, their co-workers, and your company. Always respond calmly and firmly when you are dealing with tough personalities, since you are the role model for others.
There are five most challenging personalities, and how to manage them effectively:
This is the kind of person who doesn’t care at all to other people’s feeling. It provokes a huge drawback in the workplace. Worse, they also have an inflated sense of their own importance and crave constant attention and praise.
Telling someone how their behaviour is making others feel, or working to the detriment of the company–an effective approach with many employees–won’t work at all when you’re dealing with a narcissist. Narcissists are also extremely sensitive to criticism of any kind and liable to react badly. Hence, if you want to keep them on and want them to be productive, you have to frame things in terms of how it might serve them.
What’s a good role for a narcissist? Interestingly, they will often do well in positions of power, because they take that power very seriously and value it highly, and often work very hard in those roles.
Passive-aggressive people will leave you dangling. They can make you feel you’re not worthwhile because they don’t show up for you in a consistent way. Yes, it is a form of anger, but not an outright form.
How do you deal with passive-aggressive employees? Well, they do have the capacity for empathy. They also want to advance in your workplace, and you can use both these traits to help motivate them.
When it comes to manage these people, you have to set very clear expectations. Explain what you need from them and when. Chances are, they will try to slip through any loophole they can find. Placing passive-aggressive employees in jobs where there are very specific guidelines and expectations laid out for them, you have to be very precise about what you want them to do.
See: 6 Myths of Empowering Employees
Gossips are spreading fast, and you need to do something about it. If gossipers enjoy reporting bad news about people in your company, that is obviously destructive behavior.
First, don’t participate in gossiping which can be hard to resist. Also, don’t give in to the natural human desire to know exactly what’s being said about you, or to try to please everyone so they’ll only have good things to say.
Beyond that, it is a good idea to call the gossip on his or her behaviour, and explain that it is not helpful for your workplace. Talking about gossip and its destructive effect to the company in general, if you address it honestly and explain why it is not good for your company, you give employees permission to tell people that they do not want to participate in gossip.
On the plus side, gossips often have good people skills. They like talking, so if you give them a positive place where they can talk, you can channel their abilities for the good.
These are some of the most challenging employees you will have to deal with. Some people deal with workplace tensions by accusing their co-workers of misdeeds, yelling at others, and generally giving their angry feelings free rein.
That is unacceptable behavior. They have to be given very strong limits and boundaries. It will destroy a workplace if people are having tantrums
Take anger addicts aside. Either way, they need to hear that their expressions of anger are inappropriate. Offer them the opportunity to go for counseling. Also, face the fact that anger addicts may not have a future at your company, since repeated rages can potentially drag your whole organisation down.
If you gave a plum assignment or perk to someone else, or otherwise slighted them or made their work more difficult, they will let you know just how much of a grievance they have. They may lay the same guilt trip on co-workers who they feel have slighted them as well.
Here’s the solution: tech them on how to communicate better, such as using the word I–‘I feel this way,’ rather than ‘You did this to me.’ Just an education about that might be a help.
You can also talk to them about the effect their comments are having, since guilt trippers often don’t realise how they are affecting others.
What is the best role for complainers? Have them work on independent projects, so they will not bother people.
See also: Wrong KPIs, Ill-Mannered Employees
Source: Inc
