Managing Difficult People

Managing people is not an easy task mainly because every person has a different personality. A manager is expected to be able to motivate his subordinates to perform within the standards of the company. He should be flexible enough to deal with different people, and assertive enough to get the employees to do their jobs well. Managing people is already stressful to begin with; how much more if you encounter a difficult employee? In managing difficult people, make their tasks specific and measurable. It must be in writing, clearly understood and signed by them. As with all employees, give them proper training so that they could not claim that you did not allow them the opportunity to be equipped with the proper skills. Be specific on the particular behavior that you find improper or the exact task that you want to be improved. Also, company rules and regulations must be clearly discussed to all incoming employees to avoid them giving the excuse that they are not aware that the act they committed was against the house rules. Managing difficult people will surely give you a headache. However, you cannot just immediately terminate them since you have already invested effort to train them. For the first offense, do counseling to determine the cause of their poor performance. Talk to them in a calm and controlled voice and avoid using offensive or derogatory language. Show them that though you are the boss, you respect them and you are willing to listen to them so as to attain a better work environment. Doing this might bring a turn around in their attitude because difficult people often just want to be heard. By talking to them and gaining their friendship, you could win their trust and respect. Who knows, they might even have the potential to be top employees once they look at their work in a better perspective. In managing difficult people, you need to give them a time frame to accomplish what you want them to do. At the end of the allotted time, do a performance appraisal to update them of the progress they had. An improvement in performance and work attitude deserves to be acknowledged. This will further boost their confidence and encourage them to work well. If the counseling didn’t work and they still continue to act the same way, be very clear about the consequences of their offense. Give them the chance to explain their side in writing and, with your company rule book as basis, set down appropriate punishment. This is important in dealing with difficult people as it will show them that you are serious about wanting them to do their jobs properly, and continued defiance will merit a more severe punishment such as termination, if it would really come to that. Have proper documentation of any transgression and ask them for an incident report. In managing difficult people, it is important to have written proof of their offenses because terminating an employee without cause could result to labor issues and lawsuits. These documents will aid you in proving that there is indeed, enough reason to let go of the employee.