Even the best teams have their difficulties, and many managers can point to a specific team member as their "difficult" employee. Whether they come into work with a negative attitude or continually aggravate their co-workers by not understanding their job duties, it's the manager's responsibility to help get these employees back on track for success. Use these tips to relieve tension and normalize teams when working with a difficult employee.
Be Clear and Upfront
One of the biggest mistakes managers make with their difficult employee is ignoring the problem entirely. Maybe you think the employee will correct course on their own, or maybe you hope that co-workers will facilitate the necessary changes, but ultimately, it's the responsibility of their manager. Don't wait until co-workers are at the boiling point or morale is destroyed. As a manager, you need to be upfront and clear with your employee about where they are falling short on their job responsibilities and what they can do to fix it. Schedule a private meeting with the employee to discuss ongoing issues and tackle the concern head on.
Stay Positive
Critiquing an employee's performance is always difficult. Even outside the workplace, some people become immediately defensive when they are critiqued and difficult employees may lash out if they feel they are being unfairly targeted. That's why it's so important for managers to stay positive when discussing work issues with difficult employees. Prepare for your meeting by finding at least three things your difficult employee excels at and sandwich your critique between those great traits.
Create a Plan
Reversing the behavior of a difficult employee can be the ultimate challenge. Particularly if the employee’s behavior is one only loosely related to job duties, such as demeaning behavior to co-workers or negative attitude during work hours, the employee may not know how to resolve this behavior.
To retain your difficult employee and provide them the opportunity for improvement, create a plan with specific benchmarks to improve their performance. Presenting difficult employees with a path to success will not only keep them employed, but keep them engaged.
Rely on Facts
Gossip is an annoying but inevitable part of company life. You may try to keep the murmurs down, but at some point when managing a difficult employee, a co-worker will come to you with rumors of employee behavior. Getting involved in petty gossip will only undermine you in the eyes of your workers, in particular your difficult employee.
When discussing issues with a difficult employee, keep to the facts. Talk about specific instances of sub par performance that occurred in the workplace and that you can cite with co-worker account, if necessary.
Get Feedback
It's intimidating to talk to employees about underwhelming performance and sometimes to even talk to difficult employees. Getting feedback is essential to the process of reversing the behavior of a difficult employee. Feedback ensures that they understand your concerns and can help get clarification for future goals. Encourage your difficult employee to ask questions and repeat back what you've been discussing to ensure understanding.
Write it Down
Committing issues to paper can be as scary to the manager as it is to the employee. Good managers want to protect their employees and written records may reflect badly during reviews. Still, ongoing documentation is essential. An employee who turns their behavior around can cite the documentation for performance improvement and if the behavior continues, it can be used as grounds for dismissal. After your meeting, write down what you discussed, what goals you've set, and when you will check in next about those improvements.
