I like to learn from people who have experience, seasoned experience in a subject. When learning something new, there is no one better to ask than the top staff on how to do a project or how the workplace functions. I recently found these tips on the management forums.
"Here's a list of Ten Top Tips:
* (M) Consult, consult, consult.
* (A) You are managing people, not projects or product development or customer service or any other departmental mission. People are complicated and messy. They aren't machines any more than you are; they won't be the same every day, no matter how much you'd like them to be. So stay alert to what's going on with them.
* (K) For the first couple of days, sit down and get to know your staff. Find out what they do, what their goals are, what they like to do in their free time, etc. Several years ago, I watched a new manager start with a company and for the first month or so, didn't talk to any of his staff. A month later, he wondered why people were handing in their two week notices.
Get to know your staff!!
* (R) Learn how to deal with problem or resentful employees. I was promoted into my position over a longer-term employee. She was made my assistant. (Before everyone raises the sexism issue, I was the ONLY male manager and was promoted on performance.) She had a great deal of resentment and worked against me at every turn. After floundering around for a while, I finally took her into the office and calmly explained the facts of life to her, that I was the manager and if she couldn't work with me one of us would be leaving and it wouldn't be me. She straightened out after that and we eventually developed a good relationship.
Avoid re-inventing the wheel. Everything doesn't require your unique hand-print. Some things probably work just fine already. Also don't think or act like you know everything, nothing breeds resentment more than arrogance. You may be smart, but there's always someone smarter.
* (MC) You are responsible for everything that happens in your scope of authority. Don't ever think that just because you may not be doing the actual work, you are not responsible---you *are*. Unless you are comfortable with this basic fact, management is *not* for you.
The rewards come at a price. You will have to make decisions that will benefit the company as well as your staff....and quite often they are in direct conflict with each other. (You cannot be all things to all people....)
You do have a right to be human. Just because you are now management, does not mean that you can (or should) throw emotion out the window.
Laugh with your people....let them know that you are not a humorless troll.
Be honest with your people...you expect the same from them. Even if it's bad news, honesty does help lessen the blow.
Defend your people! They will reward you with their loyalty."
Find this and more at the Management Forum ofAbout.com
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
5 Logical Action-Steps of Highly Creative Leaders!
I found this article very interesting and have seen rare leaders utilize similar actions. I want to be like them and use my creativity to be a better leader and help those follow my lead learn the same skills to be leaders themselves. I want to be more creative more often and this article has been helpful to me seeing how i can do that.
"How many times have you wondered why you are unable to "think-out-of-the-box" more often?
We are all products of our environment and our backgrounds usually prevent us from viewing situations with the unique eyes of our personal experience.
However, the leaders who think "out-of-the-proverbial-box" do so by incorporating what I like to see as a, Strategically Wise Synergistic Process of Creation.
These creative thinkers apply their own kinds of action-oriented logic to problems to help them find new wisdom, discover opportunities or see the facts in different ways.
In a word, truly creative types act differently, in ways that we'll call "Logical Action-Steps".
Logical Action-Step One: Achieve Understanding not Mere Reasoning
You want to find the basic or underlying meanings of the problems facing your group.
You could reason-out what is happening, by using your linear thinking skills to negotiate, analyze or plan your response.
For instance, you could notice that it is more chilly, by 15 degrees, this evening than it was yesterday at this same time which is certainly a reasonable observation.
Your could use your reasoning prowess to remember the cooling trend of last month's temperatures and conclude that it was windier and the skies much clearer [of clouds] for most of last night and today - therefore you would assume that it was those factors which contributed to a colder night tonight than it was last night.
Creative thinkers would aggressively investigate the weather by:
- intensely searching for answers,
- through disillusioning or transforming their pre-conceptions,
- looking within, around and beneath the conditions,
- recognizing and deeply understanding their core assumptions about the weather
Logical Action-Step Two: Seek The Strategist's Viewpoint
If you're like most knowledge-workers, you probably have a fairly extensive network of friends, colleagues, and associates. Your social network has been built over time through your individual experiences, efforts and encounters.
Strategists release the latent energies of their social networks through collaborative inquiries into finding new solutions, handling challenges and exploiting opportunities for transformation.
Thus by being the strategist you actively look for ways to create, leverage and extend synergy throughout your group.
You would want to set-up an environment or atmosphere of synergism where your team interacts and has processes or policies which encourage interactions in such a way so that the total impact of the group's efforts adds up to be more than the mere sum of their individual contributions.
Logical Action-Step Three: Engage in First-Person Research
Creative leaders make it a point to evaluate the progress of their own personal development - such as, the stages of growth and the legitimacy of each stage, they also assess their behavior and preferences.
Do you regularly or completely write down or record your thoughts, feelings and ideas? How much effort do you devote to keeping a journal, a diary or notes on your inner self?
Are you the type of person who looks for and analyzes the contradictory desires inside yourself or do you tend to notice a distinction between your desires and intentions?
What do you use to practice consciousness development or strengthening activities? In what ways do you structure your time to engage in meditation, martial arts, crafts or improvisational theater kinds of activities?
Logical Action-Step Four: Empower Their Shifts To Change
You can add power to your group through practicing techniques which enable people to discover the ideas, approaches and solutions hidden within them.
Effective leaders transform interpersonal activities into creative exercises. They orient their followers to focus on reflecting, learning, thinking, questioning, resolving, creating, discussing, debriefing, playing and interacting.
You would involve and join your stakeholders - partners, associates, peers, suppliers, constituents and others who might a part or vested interest in your venture - to build a shared vision with as broad a group of your stakeholders as possible.
Logical Action-Step Five: Capitalize on Wise Synergism
Perhaps you have heard of the principle of master-mind - it's where two or more people harmonize their thinking around a specific project or problem for the express purpose of forming a mind that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Great inventors and leaders like Thomas Edison, George Washington, Alfred Nobel and many others used their master-mind groups to generate fantastic innovations, policies and achievements for all humankind.
You can leverage the collaborative activities of your team through the strategist's approach to leadership. You can expand the time horizon of your strategies to encompass a range from 3 to 21 years.
The benefits that strategic leaders provide is that their groups enjoy opportunities to:
- Share their reflections on your mission and vision
- Openly disclosure, support and confront any differences between the organization's and their personal values
- Conduct corporate and personal performance appraisals
- Creatively resolve paradoxes or contradictions in productivity versus inquiry, autonomy versus control, and quality versus quantity
- Interactively develop self-amending and self-correcting structures
------------------------------------------------------------
You can multiply your creativity and creative leadership skills just by applying these strategies to all of your problems, situations and decisions.
Experts in psychology, management and organizational sciences call these strategies, "action-logic" - their studies reveal that professionals generally fall into one of three different behavioral categories:
1) Reactive - 5%
2) Preventive - 85%
3) Creative - 10%
This article has described the "creative" forms of action-logic - by using these strategies people will be moved to call you an "individualist", a "strategist" or a "magician"!
"I am personally convinced that one person can be a change catalyst, a "transformer" in any situation, any organization. Such an individual is yeast that can leaven an entire loaf. It requires vision, initiative, patience, respect, persistence, courage, and faith to be a transforming leader." Stephen R. Covey
Are you ready to leverage, empower and energize your creative leadership? Are you willing to be that catalyst, agent of change or provocateur who inspires others to contribute to the growth of your organization?
Ensure the success of your "Strategically Wise Synergistic Process of Creation" with these 5 "Logical Action Steps" -your teammates and organization will be so glad you did."
Read more at ezineArticles.com
"How many times have you wondered why you are unable to "think-out-of-the-box" more often?
We are all products of our environment and our backgrounds usually prevent us from viewing situations with the unique eyes of our personal experience.
However, the leaders who think "out-of-the-proverbial-box" do so by incorporating what I like to see as a, Strategically Wise Synergistic Process of Creation.
These creative thinkers apply their own kinds of action-oriented logic to problems to help them find new wisdom, discover opportunities or see the facts in different ways.
In a word, truly creative types act differently, in ways that we'll call "Logical Action-Steps".
Logical Action-Step One: Achieve Understanding not Mere Reasoning
You want to find the basic or underlying meanings of the problems facing your group.
You could reason-out what is happening, by using your linear thinking skills to negotiate, analyze or plan your response.
For instance, you could notice that it is more chilly, by 15 degrees, this evening than it was yesterday at this same time which is certainly a reasonable observation.
Your could use your reasoning prowess to remember the cooling trend of last month's temperatures and conclude that it was windier and the skies much clearer [of clouds] for most of last night and today - therefore you would assume that it was those factors which contributed to a colder night tonight than it was last night.
Creative thinkers would aggressively investigate the weather by:
- intensely searching for answers,
- through disillusioning or transforming their pre-conceptions,
- looking within, around and beneath the conditions,
- recognizing and deeply understanding their core assumptions about the weather
Logical Action-Step Two: Seek The Strategist's Viewpoint
If you're like most knowledge-workers, you probably have a fairly extensive network of friends, colleagues, and associates. Your social network has been built over time through your individual experiences, efforts and encounters.
Strategists release the latent energies of their social networks through collaborative inquiries into finding new solutions, handling challenges and exploiting opportunities for transformation.
Thus by being the strategist you actively look for ways to create, leverage and extend synergy throughout your group.
You would want to set-up an environment or atmosphere of synergism where your team interacts and has processes or policies which encourage interactions in such a way so that the total impact of the group's efforts adds up to be more than the mere sum of their individual contributions.
Logical Action-Step Three: Engage in First-Person Research
Creative leaders make it a point to evaluate the progress of their own personal development - such as, the stages of growth and the legitimacy of each stage, they also assess their behavior and preferences.
Do you regularly or completely write down or record your thoughts, feelings and ideas? How much effort do you devote to keeping a journal, a diary or notes on your inner self?
Are you the type of person who looks for and analyzes the contradictory desires inside yourself or do you tend to notice a distinction between your desires and intentions?
What do you use to practice consciousness development or strengthening activities? In what ways do you structure your time to engage in meditation, martial arts, crafts or improvisational theater kinds of activities?
Logical Action-Step Four: Empower Their Shifts To Change
You can add power to your group through practicing techniques which enable people to discover the ideas, approaches and solutions hidden within them.
Effective leaders transform interpersonal activities into creative exercises. They orient their followers to focus on reflecting, learning, thinking, questioning, resolving, creating, discussing, debriefing, playing and interacting.
You would involve and join your stakeholders - partners, associates, peers, suppliers, constituents and others who might a part or vested interest in your venture - to build a shared vision with as broad a group of your stakeholders as possible.
Logical Action-Step Five: Capitalize on Wise Synergism
Perhaps you have heard of the principle of master-mind - it's where two or more people harmonize their thinking around a specific project or problem for the express purpose of forming a mind that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Great inventors and leaders like Thomas Edison, George Washington, Alfred Nobel and many others used their master-mind groups to generate fantastic innovations, policies and achievements for all humankind.
You can leverage the collaborative activities of your team through the strategist's approach to leadership. You can expand the time horizon of your strategies to encompass a range from 3 to 21 years.
The benefits that strategic leaders provide is that their groups enjoy opportunities to:
- Share their reflections on your mission and vision
- Openly disclosure, support and confront any differences between the organization's and their personal values
- Conduct corporate and personal performance appraisals
- Creatively resolve paradoxes or contradictions in productivity versus inquiry, autonomy versus control, and quality versus quantity
- Interactively develop self-amending and self-correcting structures
------------------------------------------------------------
You can multiply your creativity and creative leadership skills just by applying these strategies to all of your problems, situations and decisions.
Experts in psychology, management and organizational sciences call these strategies, "action-logic" - their studies reveal that professionals generally fall into one of three different behavioral categories:
1) Reactive - 5%
2) Preventive - 85%
3) Creative - 10%
This article has described the "creative" forms of action-logic - by using these strategies people will be moved to call you an "individualist", a "strategist" or a "magician"!
"I am personally convinced that one person can be a change catalyst, a "transformer" in any situation, any organization. Such an individual is yeast that can leaven an entire loaf. It requires vision, initiative, patience, respect, persistence, courage, and faith to be a transforming leader." Stephen R. Covey
Are you ready to leverage, empower and energize your creative leadership? Are you willing to be that catalyst, agent of change or provocateur who inspires others to contribute to the growth of your organization?
Ensure the success of your "Strategically Wise Synergistic Process of Creation" with these 5 "Logical Action Steps" -your teammates and organization will be so glad you did."
Read more at ezineArticles.com
Monday, March 22, 2010
Leaders vs Managers
What is the difference between management and leadership? It is a question that has been asked more than once and also answered in different ways. The biggest difference between managers and leaders is the way they motivate the people who work or follow them, and this sets the tone for most other aspects of what they do.
Many people, by the way, are both. They have management jobs, but they realize that you cannot buy hearts, especially to follow them down a difficult path, and so act as leaders too.
Managers have subordinates
By definition, managers have subordinates - unless their title is honorary and given as a mark of seniority, in which case the title is a misnomer and their power over others is other than formal authority.
Authoritarian, transactional style
Managers have a position of authority vested in them by the company, and their subordinates work for them and largely do as they are told. Management style is transactional, in that the manager tells the subordinate what to do, and the subordinate does this not because they are a blind robot, but because they have been promised a reward (at minimum their salary) for doing so.
Work focus
Managers are paid to get things done (they are subordinates too), often within tight constraints of time and money. They thus naturally pass on this work focus to their subordinates.
Seek comfort
An interesting research finding about managers is that they tend to come from stable home backgrounds and led relatively normal and comfortable lives. This leads them to be relatively risk-averse and they will seek to avoid conflict where possible. In terms of people, they generally like to run a 'happy ship'.
Leaders have followers
Leaders do not have subordinates - at least not when they are leading. Many organizational leaders do have subordinates, but only because they are also managers. But when they want to lead, they have to give up formal authoritarian control, because to lead is to have followers, and following is always a voluntary activity.
Charismatic, transformational style
Telling people what to do does not inspire them to follow you. You have to appeal to them, showing how following them will lead to their hearts' desire. They must want to follow you enough to stop what they are doing and perhaps walk into danger and situations that they would not normally consider risking.
Leaders with a stronger charisma find it easier to attract people to their cause. As a part of their persuasion they typically promise transformational benefits, such that their followers will not just receive extrinsic rewards but will somehow become better people.
People focus
Although many leaders have a charismatic style to some extent, this does not require a loud personality. They are always good with people, and quiet styles that give credit to others (and takes blame on themselves) are very effective at creating the loyalty that great leaders engender.
Although leaders are good with people, this does not mean they are friendly with them. In order to keep the mystique of leadership, they often retain a degree of separation and aloofness.
This does not mean that leaders do not pay attention to tasks - in fact they are often very achievement-focused. What they do realize, however, is the importance of enthusing others to work towards their vision.
Seek risk
In the same study that showed managers as risk-averse, leaders appeared as risk-seeking, although they are not blind thrill-seekers. When pursuing their vision, they consider it natural to encounter problems and hurdles that must be overcome along the way. They are thus comfortable with risk and will see routes that others avoid as potential opportunities for advantage and will happily break rules in order to get things done.
A surprising number of these leaders had some form of handicap in their lives which they had to overcome. Some had traumatic childhoods, some had problems such as dyslexia, others were shorter than average. This perhaps taught them the independence of mind that is needed to go out on a limb and not worry about what others are thinking about you.
In summary
This table summarizes the above (and more) and gives a sense of the differences between being a leader and being a manager. This is, of course, an illustrative characterization, and there is a whole spectrum between either ends of these scales along which each role can range. And many people lead and manage at the same time, and so may display a combination of behaviors.
Read more at ChangingMinds.org
Many people, by the way, are both. They have management jobs, but they realize that you cannot buy hearts, especially to follow them down a difficult path, and so act as leaders too.
Managers have subordinates
By definition, managers have subordinates - unless their title is honorary and given as a mark of seniority, in which case the title is a misnomer and their power over others is other than formal authority.
Authoritarian, transactional style
Managers have a position of authority vested in them by the company, and their subordinates work for them and largely do as they are told. Management style is transactional, in that the manager tells the subordinate what to do, and the subordinate does this not because they are a blind robot, but because they have been promised a reward (at minimum their salary) for doing so.
Work focus
Managers are paid to get things done (they are subordinates too), often within tight constraints of time and money. They thus naturally pass on this work focus to their subordinates.
Seek comfort
An interesting research finding about managers is that they tend to come from stable home backgrounds and led relatively normal and comfortable lives. This leads them to be relatively risk-averse and they will seek to avoid conflict where possible. In terms of people, they generally like to run a 'happy ship'.
Leaders have followers
Leaders do not have subordinates - at least not when they are leading. Many organizational leaders do have subordinates, but only because they are also managers. But when they want to lead, they have to give up formal authoritarian control, because to lead is to have followers, and following is always a voluntary activity.
Charismatic, transformational style
Telling people what to do does not inspire them to follow you. You have to appeal to them, showing how following them will lead to their hearts' desire. They must want to follow you enough to stop what they are doing and perhaps walk into danger and situations that they would not normally consider risking.
Leaders with a stronger charisma find it easier to attract people to their cause. As a part of their persuasion they typically promise transformational benefits, such that their followers will not just receive extrinsic rewards but will somehow become better people.
People focus
Although many leaders have a charismatic style to some extent, this does not require a loud personality. They are always good with people, and quiet styles that give credit to others (and takes blame on themselves) are very effective at creating the loyalty that great leaders engender.
Although leaders are good with people, this does not mean they are friendly with them. In order to keep the mystique of leadership, they often retain a degree of separation and aloofness.
This does not mean that leaders do not pay attention to tasks - in fact they are often very achievement-focused. What they do realize, however, is the importance of enthusing others to work towards their vision.
Seek risk
In the same study that showed managers as risk-averse, leaders appeared as risk-seeking, although they are not blind thrill-seekers. When pursuing their vision, they consider it natural to encounter problems and hurdles that must be overcome along the way. They are thus comfortable with risk and will see routes that others avoid as potential opportunities for advantage and will happily break rules in order to get things done.
A surprising number of these leaders had some form of handicap in their lives which they had to overcome. Some had traumatic childhoods, some had problems such as dyslexia, others were shorter than average. This perhaps taught them the independence of mind that is needed to go out on a limb and not worry about what others are thinking about you.
In summary
This table summarizes the above (and more) and gives a sense of the differences between being a leader and being a manager. This is, of course, an illustrative characterization, and there is a whole spectrum between either ends of these scales along which each role can range. And many people lead and manage at the same time, and so may display a combination of behaviors.
Read more at ChangingMinds.org
Monday, March 1, 2010
Creating Leaders
Recently I read an article about how leadership is actually something you decide on based on some factors. The interview for the article was with Robert Jeffrey Sternberg. He is a former IBM professor of psychology and education at Yale University and president of the American Psychological Association. Many things in the article I agree with and want to convey to others. These statements make sense to me and they should make sense to you, if not, please comment below and I will do the best I can to explain.
The WICS system is an acronym for creating leaders. WICS is an acronym for "wisdom, intelligence, creativity synthesized." The basic idea behind it is that leadership is not something you are born with and is not an inherited trait. It's something you decide to do. Good leadership is a decision that builds on a combination--a synthesis--of wisdom, intelligence and creativity. According to this view, there are two differentiable elements that are really important. The first is skills and the other is attitude. To be a good leader you have to know how to do things, but attitude is at least as important or more important. The way you think about problems and your attitude toward those problems is as essential as your ability to solve them.
When you take a leadership role, whether as chairman of a corporation or as a leader in your family, you need ideas. You need creative skills and attitudes to come up with those ideas. You need analytical skills and attitudes to decide whether they are good ideas. You need practical skills and attitudes to put them into practice and to persuade people to listen to you. And finally you need wisdom to balance the effects of your ideas on yourself, others and institutions, in both the short and long term.
When we talk about creativity, we're talking about ideas that are novel, that are good and that are appropriate for the task you need to do. With creativity, with intelligence and with wisdom there's always a big decision. The big decision with creativity is to defy the crowd. It's to buy low and sell high in the world of ideas. A creative person is someone who decides to produce ideas, to support ideas that go against the crowd, and that is like buying low, doing the opposite of what other people are doing. Then you sell high. Once people are persuaded of the value of your idea, you sell it and move on to the next idea.
Successful intelligence is the ability to attain your goals in life within your sociocultural context by capitalizing on your strengths and correcting or compensating for your weaknesses, and by selecting and shaping your environments. It basically gives you your ability to do what you want to do in your life. Creative ability is coming up with ideas; analytical ability is seeing if they're good ideas; and practical ability is making them work. The big decision is just to use your intelligence to achieve success in your life by your own standards.
Successful leadership requires one more element as well, wisdom. You can be creatively, analytically and practically intelligent, but if you aren't also wise, it all goes sour. Wisdom is about the positive use of knowledge and the positive use of skills. It basically helps you integrate the other aspects of WICS, the application of successful intelligence, creativity and experience toward the attainment of a common good, through a balance of intrapersonal, interpersonal and extrapersonal interests. It means that you balance your own interests with the interests of other people and the interests of higher-order things--which could be your institution, your country, God, whatever--over the shorter and long term. You care about long-term outcomes for your organization or your society as much as you do about short-term goals. You achieve this through the mediation of values like reciprocity, honesty and sincerity as you act to balance adaptation to environments with selection and shaping of them. Some of the time you change yourself to fit the environment; some of the time you change the environment to fit you. Some of the time you just get out.
In summation, WICS means using elements of your intelligence to succeed in life, and part of that is defying the crowd creatively when necessary so as to achieve a common good for all. It's a synthesis of intelligence, creativity and wisdom. WICS provides a useful model for leadership, but the most important thing to remember is that good leadership is in a large part a decision. It's something you can decide to do; something we can all decide to do. It's something I hope you do decide to do.
Read more here at Forbes.com
The WICS system is an acronym for creating leaders. WICS is an acronym for "wisdom, intelligence, creativity synthesized." The basic idea behind it is that leadership is not something you are born with and is not an inherited trait. It's something you decide to do. Good leadership is a decision that builds on a combination--a synthesis--of wisdom, intelligence and creativity. According to this view, there are two differentiable elements that are really important. The first is skills and the other is attitude. To be a good leader you have to know how to do things, but attitude is at least as important or more important. The way you think about problems and your attitude toward those problems is as essential as your ability to solve them.
When you take a leadership role, whether as chairman of a corporation or as a leader in your family, you need ideas. You need creative skills and attitudes to come up with those ideas. You need analytical skills and attitudes to decide whether they are good ideas. You need practical skills and attitudes to put them into practice and to persuade people to listen to you. And finally you need wisdom to balance the effects of your ideas on yourself, others and institutions, in both the short and long term.
When we talk about creativity, we're talking about ideas that are novel, that are good and that are appropriate for the task you need to do. With creativity, with intelligence and with wisdom there's always a big decision. The big decision with creativity is to defy the crowd. It's to buy low and sell high in the world of ideas. A creative person is someone who decides to produce ideas, to support ideas that go against the crowd, and that is like buying low, doing the opposite of what other people are doing. Then you sell high. Once people are persuaded of the value of your idea, you sell it and move on to the next idea.
Successful intelligence is the ability to attain your goals in life within your sociocultural context by capitalizing on your strengths and correcting or compensating for your weaknesses, and by selecting and shaping your environments. It basically gives you your ability to do what you want to do in your life. Creative ability is coming up with ideas; analytical ability is seeing if they're good ideas; and practical ability is making them work. The big decision is just to use your intelligence to achieve success in your life by your own standards.
Successful leadership requires one more element as well, wisdom. You can be creatively, analytically and practically intelligent, but if you aren't also wise, it all goes sour. Wisdom is about the positive use of knowledge and the positive use of skills. It basically helps you integrate the other aspects of WICS, the application of successful intelligence, creativity and experience toward the attainment of a common good, through a balance of intrapersonal, interpersonal and extrapersonal interests. It means that you balance your own interests with the interests of other people and the interests of higher-order things--which could be your institution, your country, God, whatever--over the shorter and long term. You care about long-term outcomes for your organization or your society as much as you do about short-term goals. You achieve this through the mediation of values like reciprocity, honesty and sincerity as you act to balance adaptation to environments with selection and shaping of them. Some of the time you change yourself to fit the environment; some of the time you change the environment to fit you. Some of the time you just get out.
In summation, WICS means using elements of your intelligence to succeed in life, and part of that is defying the crowd creatively when necessary so as to achieve a common good for all. It's a synthesis of intelligence, creativity and wisdom. WICS provides a useful model for leadership, but the most important thing to remember is that good leadership is in a large part a decision. It's something you can decide to do; something we can all decide to do. It's something I hope you do decide to do.
Read more here at Forbes.com
How to Tame Difficult Employees
Being a manager, being a leader, one must be able to handle troublesome employees. This article describes how to deal with problematic underlings and how to use your experienced to grow and be a stronger person. Being a leader also means being able to handle the followers.
All managers will have to deal with difficult employees during their careers. First, there will always be difficult employees. Second, it's your job as the manager to deal with them. If you don't deal the problem, it will only get worse.
Why Are Difficult Employees Like That?
Difficult employees are that way simply because it is a behavior that has worked for them in the past. They may not know any other behavior or they may choose this behavior when they think it will be most effective. You will be successful in dealing with difficult employees only to the extent that you can make these undesirable behaviors no longer effective for them. In many ways, it's like dealing with children. If every times a child screams, its parents give it candy, what will the child do when it wants candy? It will scream, of course. The same is true for the employee who "blows up" whenever anyone disagrees with him. When he does that people stop disagreeing with him and he thinks he has won.
How Can A Manager Deal With Difficult Employees
* Evaluate
It is important when dealing with difficult employees to act quickly. Often you will need to act almost immediately to neutralize a dangerous situation. However, it is always appropriate to think before you act. Clearly if an employee comes to work with a gun, you will need to act more quickly than when someone complains that another employee is always taking credit for her work. In either case, take the appropriate amount of time to evaluate the situation before you act. You don't want to make it worse.
Recognize that most employees can be "difficult" from time to time. This can be caused by stress on the job or away from it. Some employees are difficult more often than others. It is not always your least-productive employees who are difficult. So take a moment to evaluate each situation for the unique situation it is.
* Do your homework
Always act on facts. Don't base your actions on gossip or rumor. The person spreading the gossip is a difficult employee in their own way. If you have not seen the inappropriate behavior yourself, look into it. Ask the people reportedly involved. Collect all the facts you can before you act.
Don't use the fact that you haven't seen the inappropriate behavior as an excuse to delay doing something. It is important to act promptly.
Make sure you aren't part of the problem. It will be much more difficult to remain calm and impartial in confronting the difficult behavior if you are partly responsible. If that's the case, be sure you acknowledge your role in it, at least to yourself.
* Develop a plan
You're a manager. You know the value of planning. This situation is no different. You need to plan the timing of the confrontation. You need to select a quiet, private place where you won't be interrupted. You need to decide whether you need to have others, like an HR representative, present in the meeting. Plan the confrontation and then make it happen.
When you have prepared, it is time to act. You do not need to act impulsively, but you must act quickly. The longer an inappropriate behavior is allowed to continue, the harder it will be to change it or stop it.
* Confront the problem
Don't put it off. It may not be pleasant, but it's an important part of your job. It will not "fix itself". It can only get worse. You have planned this confrontation. Now you need to execute.
* Deal with the behavior, not the person
Your goal is to develop a solution, not to "win". Focus on the inappropriate behavior; don't attack the person.
Use "I" statements like "I need everybody on the team here on time so we can meet our goals" rather than "you" statements like "you are always late".
Don't assume the inappropriate behavior is caused by negative intent. It may be from fear, confusion, lack of motivation, personal problems, etc.
Give the other person a chance to develop a solution to the problem. They are more likely to "own" the solution if they are at least partially responsible for developing it.
* Try to draw out the reasons behind the behavior
As you talk with the difficult employee, actively listen to what they say. Stay calm and stay positive, but remain impartial and non-judgmental. Ask leading questions that can't be answered in one or two words. Don't interrupt.
When you do respond to the difficult employee, remain calm. Summarize back to them what they just said, "so what I understand you are saying is", so they know you are actually listening to them.
If you can find out from the difficult employee what the real source of the inappropriate behavior is, you have a much better chance of finding a solution.
Sometimes these confrontations will go smoothly, or at least rapidly, to a conclusion. Other times it will require several sessions to resolve the problem.
* Repeat as necessary
Minor problems, like being late for work, you may be able to resolve with a simple chat in your office with the employee. An office bully, who has used that behavior successfully since elementary school, may need more than one confrontation before a solution can be reached. Be patient. Don't always expect instant results. Aim for continuous improvement rather than trying to achieve instant success.
* Know when you are in over your head
Sometimes the underlying issue with a difficult employee will be beyond your capabilities. The employee may have psychological problems that require professional help, for example. Learn when to keep trying and when to refer the employee to others for more specialized help. Your company may have an EAP or you may need to use resources from the community.
* Know when you are at the end
While the goals is always to reach a mutually acceptable solution that resolves the difficult employees inappropriate behavior and keeps your team at full strength, sometimes that is not possible. When you reach an impasse and the employee is not willing to change his or her behavior then you need to begin terminations procedures in accordance with your company's policies.
Coming to a Solution
The desired result from confronting a difficult employee's inappropriate behavior is an agreed upon solution. You know that this inappropriate behavior will continue unless you and the employee agree on a solution. The employee needs to know what is inappropriate about their behavior and they also need to know what is appropriate behavior. The need for a manager to communicate clearly is always high. It is especially important in these situations. Make very sure the employee understands the requirements and the consequences.
Read more at About.com
All managers will have to deal with difficult employees during their careers. First, there will always be difficult employees. Second, it's your job as the manager to deal with them. If you don't deal the problem, it will only get worse.
Why Are Difficult Employees Like That?
Difficult employees are that way simply because it is a behavior that has worked for them in the past. They may not know any other behavior or they may choose this behavior when they think it will be most effective. You will be successful in dealing with difficult employees only to the extent that you can make these undesirable behaviors no longer effective for them. In many ways, it's like dealing with children. If every times a child screams, its parents give it candy, what will the child do when it wants candy? It will scream, of course. The same is true for the employee who "blows up" whenever anyone disagrees with him. When he does that people stop disagreeing with him and he thinks he has won.
How Can A Manager Deal With Difficult Employees
* Evaluate
It is important when dealing with difficult employees to act quickly. Often you will need to act almost immediately to neutralize a dangerous situation. However, it is always appropriate to think before you act. Clearly if an employee comes to work with a gun, you will need to act more quickly than when someone complains that another employee is always taking credit for her work. In either case, take the appropriate amount of time to evaluate the situation before you act. You don't want to make it worse.
Recognize that most employees can be "difficult" from time to time. This can be caused by stress on the job or away from it. Some employees are difficult more often than others. It is not always your least-productive employees who are difficult. So take a moment to evaluate each situation for the unique situation it is.
* Do your homework
Always act on facts. Don't base your actions on gossip or rumor. The person spreading the gossip is a difficult employee in their own way. If you have not seen the inappropriate behavior yourself, look into it. Ask the people reportedly involved. Collect all the facts you can before you act.
Don't use the fact that you haven't seen the inappropriate behavior as an excuse to delay doing something. It is important to act promptly.
Make sure you aren't part of the problem. It will be much more difficult to remain calm and impartial in confronting the difficult behavior if you are partly responsible. If that's the case, be sure you acknowledge your role in it, at least to yourself.
* Develop a plan
You're a manager. You know the value of planning. This situation is no different. You need to plan the timing of the confrontation. You need to select a quiet, private place where you won't be interrupted. You need to decide whether you need to have others, like an HR representative, present in the meeting. Plan the confrontation and then make it happen.
When you have prepared, it is time to act. You do not need to act impulsively, but you must act quickly. The longer an inappropriate behavior is allowed to continue, the harder it will be to change it or stop it.
* Confront the problem
Don't put it off. It may not be pleasant, but it's an important part of your job. It will not "fix itself". It can only get worse. You have planned this confrontation. Now you need to execute.
* Deal with the behavior, not the person
Your goal is to develop a solution, not to "win". Focus on the inappropriate behavior; don't attack the person.
Use "I" statements like "I need everybody on the team here on time so we can meet our goals" rather than "you" statements like "you are always late".
Don't assume the inappropriate behavior is caused by negative intent. It may be from fear, confusion, lack of motivation, personal problems, etc.
Give the other person a chance to develop a solution to the problem. They are more likely to "own" the solution if they are at least partially responsible for developing it.
* Try to draw out the reasons behind the behavior
As you talk with the difficult employee, actively listen to what they say. Stay calm and stay positive, but remain impartial and non-judgmental. Ask leading questions that can't be answered in one or two words. Don't interrupt.
When you do respond to the difficult employee, remain calm. Summarize back to them what they just said, "so what I understand you are saying is", so they know you are actually listening to them.
If you can find out from the difficult employee what the real source of the inappropriate behavior is, you have a much better chance of finding a solution.
Sometimes these confrontations will go smoothly, or at least rapidly, to a conclusion. Other times it will require several sessions to resolve the problem.
* Repeat as necessary
Minor problems, like being late for work, you may be able to resolve with a simple chat in your office with the employee. An office bully, who has used that behavior successfully since elementary school, may need more than one confrontation before a solution can be reached. Be patient. Don't always expect instant results. Aim for continuous improvement rather than trying to achieve instant success.
* Know when you are in over your head
Sometimes the underlying issue with a difficult employee will be beyond your capabilities. The employee may have psychological problems that require professional help, for example. Learn when to keep trying and when to refer the employee to others for more specialized help. Your company may have an EAP or you may need to use resources from the community.
* Know when you are at the end
While the goals is always to reach a mutually acceptable solution that resolves the difficult employees inappropriate behavior and keeps your team at full strength, sometimes that is not possible. When you reach an impasse and the employee is not willing to change his or her behavior then you need to begin terminations procedures in accordance with your company's policies.
Coming to a Solution
The desired result from confronting a difficult employee's inappropriate behavior is an agreed upon solution. You know that this inappropriate behavior will continue unless you and the employee agree on a solution. The employee needs to know what is inappropriate about their behavior and they also need to know what is appropriate behavior. The need for a manager to communicate clearly is always high. It is especially important in these situations. Make very sure the employee understands the requirements and the consequences.
Read more at About.com
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