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6 Tips For Managing People Who Are Hard To Manage
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Accept Management’s Inherent Difficulty
- Don't waste time and mental energy wishing it weren't so.
- Accept that frustrations and difficult situations go with the territory of management.
- Understand that that's why management is better paid.
- Approach employee "issues" positively, like an intriguing puzzle to solve.
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Deal With Conflict Directly
The best managers don’t avoid or bulldoze over conflicts, as doing so is harmful to cooperation. They understand people will have to keep working together in the future and that constructive and fair solutions are the ideal.
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Be Empathetic
Someone may be hard to manage due to new external factors or something in your own management style. If you can look at a problematic situation holistically and gain insights into why someone is acting a certain way, that can lead you to a constructive solution.
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Get Help When Necessary
Get perspective on a difficult employee from someone whose judgment you trust. It isn't a sign of weakness, but of sensible judgment.
Human Resources is especially helpful, so make a point of establishing close working relationships with them and also with those you feel are especially capable.
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Set Clear Measurable Goals
This makes it clear if employees are on track and have reached their performance targets. With clear goals there is no space for arguing in case of failure, only correcting.
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Think In Terms Of Assets And Liabilities
Always consider if a problematic employee still adds real value to the organization. Sometimes they subtract more than they add, and liabilities should be let go.
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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“A person can be highly educated, professionally successful, and financially illiterate.”
Robert Kiyosaki
Financial Literacy Questions
A financially literate person should be able to answer these questions:
- How much are they earning after tax and after saving for retirement? Is it fair considering their education level and job title?
- Are they earning above sector median rates, below, or on par?
- How much goes to their retirement accounts?
- How much goes into their investments?
- What are the rates of return on their investments when benchmarked against an index like the S&P 500?
- What are their financial plans?
- Can they read a company's financial statement?
- Do they understand their tax benefits?
- Do they understand their retirement requirements?
- Do they have a plan for retiring?
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The Pressure Of Time
Most leaders have familiar approaches to managing time: setting goals, planning, delegating, tracking commitments, and creating to-do lists. While these approaches do help in self-organization, the...
Sustainable Productivity
Instead of increasing the number of productive hours, we can focus on getting the right things done in a timely way. We also need to restore and balance ourselves, our colleagues, family and environment, instead of a neurotic or pathological focus on deadlines.
Find out what's truly important to us and use the finite resource of time wisely.
Phantom Workload
Phantom workload looks like real work but results in massive unproductivity and even conflict in an organization. The pressure to meet unrealistic expectations causes a vicious cycle of further workload.
Leaders need to take a hard look at what is being avoided or not addressed. Facing difficult tasks that were 'swept under the carpet' earlier strengthens them further to make hard decisions and face difficult people and situations.
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Working Remotely
There is ongoing turbulence in the workplace due to the uncertainties provided by the new virus, resulting in a whole lot of people working from home. Normally the work-from-home policies are esta...
Common Challenges of Remote Work
Even high-performing employees can face a decline in job performance and engagement when working remotely. This can be due to:
- Lack of face-to-face supervision, which leads to a two-way communication gap and even mistrust.
- There is a delay in the procurement of information as remote workers aren’t able to sense the atmosphere and real-time events at the workplace, leading to a lack of ‘mutual knowledge’.
- A sense of isolation among remote workers, leading to a feeling of less belongingness within the organization.
- Distractions at home due to unplanned work-from-home transition, with employees balancing childcare and many other responsibilities along with work.
Improving Engagement And Productivity
A few specific, research-backed steps that can be taken to improve the engagement and productivity of remote employees:
- Establishing Structured Daily check-ins, by establishing a daily call or touchpoint.
- Providing several different communication technology options, using virtual communication tools like Slack, Zoom, Microsoft Teams etc., and making use of video conferencing.
- Establishing clear rules of engagement for communicating with the coworkers or the managers, according to the levels of urgency.
- Providing opportunities for remote social interaction by talking about non-work activities, thereby reducing the feeling of isolation among remote workers.
- Offering encouragement and emotional support by listening to the workers, acknowledging their stress, and keeping their needs and issues in focus.