Strong leadership needed for difficult employees

Media release 17 August 2007

Strong leadership needed to deal with difficult employees

Good leadership and tackling problems head-on are the keys to dealing with difficult people in the workplace, says psychologist and business consultant Dr Steven Saunders.

And good recruitment processes are the key to avoiding them in the first place, he told 200 finance and HR managers at a Robert Half Finance & Accounting business breakfast on Friday (August 17).

But even when it’s easy to find skilled and enthusiastic staff, “it’s unlikely that you’ll have 100% of people on board 100% of the time to 100% of their ability, achieving excellent results”.

With a tight labour market employers had few options other than to deal with difficult personalities, Dr Saunders said.

There were several reasons why personality issues caused workplace difficulties, Dr Saunders said, and poor leadership was top of the list. “The speed of the leader is the speed of the team.”

One big mistake leaders made was not spending enough time with their teams, so they were not entirely aware of what was going on. But in an age when electronic communication was all too easy “it’s far more important than ever before to face up and eyeball people, to press the flesh, look in their eyes and connect with them”.

Being a good leader meant being able to clearly define the rules, Dr Saunders said, and it also meant being able to “jump on any behaviours whatsoever that do not conform to where the organisation is going”.

“And the leader’s better off to jump on it themselves, rather than to rush off and get some assistance.”

In any workplace, about 20% of employees were incredibly enthusiastic and positive about their work; 70% were good, regular and solid people who generally did well; and 10%, for one reason or another, had an axe to grind.

“Well-poisoners find fault with absolutely everything and everyone, they blame others for their behaviour and they never accept personal responsibility.”

Managers needed to have a frank discussion with such people, outline their negative behaviours - not attitudes - and what effect they were having and tell them that those behaviours had to change.

“Getting along with others is a key behaviour and key requirement for the majority of people you work with,” Dr Saunders said.

It was acceptable to insert a sentence into an employee’s job description saying that they were required to be “a positive, willing, contributing and adaptable member of the team”, he said.

“You can then performance manage against that.”

Another difficult workplace personality type was the “bruiser” - a particularly sensitive person who was constantly unhappy and always felt like the victim.

Such people tended to demoralise the rest of the workforce, and problems often disappeared when they went on leave.

This behaviour might well be masking depression, and when tackling the problem it might be important to suggest the person seek outside help.

“But you can’t accept their behaviour,” Dr Saunders said. “You’ve got to deal with the bruiser and get them to accept responsibility.”

By getting their recruitment practices right, employers could avoid many workplace personality problems, he said. And one of the most important things to consider was whether they should be using recruitment agents like Robert Half to help them find the right people.

“When you do your own recruiting, you tend to recruit to your own weaknesses, not your strengths. When you have someone else doing it, they can look at it through different eyes.”

It was vital when recruiting not just to concentrate on skill, but also on personality. “Problems occur not because of skill or lack of skill, but because of how that person behaves.”

That meant it was vital to thoroughly check out their past employment behaviour, because how they behaved in previous jobs tended to indicate how they would behave in the one you were recruiting for.

“Dr. Saunders comments are particularly relevant in today’s very candidate tight market” commented Kim Smith, Division Director for Robert Half. “Not only are you forced to deal with difficult people as there are not a lot of people in the market to replace someone who’s being difficult, but this market also means that the chances of employing difficult people increase.”

“The best candidates in the work force may not be on the market at all. Getting the hiring process right the first time is critical for your success and the success of the company. The best advice I can give is to hire a recruitment company that has robust vetting processes in place. Make sure they actually meet all of their candidates and do thorough reference checks. It’s also a great idea to make sure they can tap into the “hidden market” of those candidates that are not actively in the market but would certainly entertain a role that fits specific criteria for their next career move. Not only are those candidates the most valuable in today’s market, they are also least likely to be difficult. “

ENDS

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