Tip #1025:  How to Think About Difficult Employees

This Tip looks at how managers should think about difficult employees, realizing they may not be totally to blame.

I’ve spent 45 years working with leaders in national and international for-profit and non-profit organizations. Through it all, my mantra continues to be that it’s the leaders’ responsibility to set their employees up for success.

Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the quality management mastermind, once said that 85% of an employee’s ability to perform successfully on the job depends upon the system. By the system, he meant the leaders, policies, procedures, and culture of an organization.

When an employee is acting out and proving “difficult,” stop and think before blaming the employee.

What Employees Need to be Successful

Consider what employees need to be successful on their jobs and whether one or more of these components are missing:

Relevant Skills and Effective Onboarding

✅ Relevant skills for the job [Someone determined they were job ready]

✅ Effective onboarding [they understand the policies, procedures, and how they fit in the organization]

Welcoming Culture and Clear Job Descriptions

✅ A welcoming culture [they feel comfortable, supported, and accepted for who they are and what they can contribute]

✅ Clear job descriptions [they know what they are supposed to do]

Reasonable Expectations and Sufficient Resources

✅ Reasonable and explicit performance expectations [they know the standards they have to meet and know they can meet them]

✅ Sufficient tools and resources [they have what they need so they can do the job]

Training and Delegation

✅ Training opportunities [their skills are continually updated for their current job and for potential career growth]

✅ Delegated decision making [they have sufficient authority to perform their duties]

Recognition and Coaching

✅ Regular recognition [their efforts are appreciated and rewarded]

✅ Ongoing coaching feedback [they know what’s working and what they need to work on]

Open Communication and Psychological Safety

✅ Open communication [they’re kept in the loop on all information that affects them, and they’re able to voice their concerns and have them taken seriously]

✅ Psychological safety [they feel secure trying new things and making mistakes]

Equitable Compensation

✅ Equitable compensation [their pay is fair and appropriate]

Good leaders ensure that all these contributors to employee success are present and accounted for before they blame the employee.

Few employees wake up in the morning planning to be “difficult.” If one or more components are missing, leaders should give themselves and their “difficult” employees some grace- and then constructively remedy the situation.

P.S. What else do employees need to be successful on the job?

If your managers would benefit from learning how to handle a difficult employee, please book a call to discuss a management training program. https://laurelandassociates.com/contact/

May your learning be safe,

Deborah

#difficultemployees #employeesuccess #laurelandassociates #hrmanagers #trainingdirector #leadership #performancemanagement

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