The greatest resource you can have in your business is employees who bring energy, vitality and strength into your business.
Many small and medium businesses in western economies are service business or they rely heavily on customer service for their success.
In these businesses the quality of employees can be the difference between a highly profitable business and one that just scrapes by!
When dealing with people, often more is thought than said, so situations can go unnoticed for quite some time until everything ‘boils over’ and you have a real problem in your business.
Have you ever been in the situation where your best employee did something that shocked and disappointed you?
The problem is that they are your best employee and without them your business would suffer significantly!
The reality is that difficult employees can affect the whole atmosphere of your business so you need to find a way to address their behaviour before it affects other people.
A difficult employee can often get the job done but leave a trail of disappointed people behind them shaking their heads and wondering when that person will consider their interests at all! Another form of difficult employee is the one who is highly reserved and you can find what they think or feel on anything at all!
So how is the best way to address a difficult employee?
You will find there are many courses and books regarding conflict and the best way to deal with it ‘head on’.
I personally believe that if some time was taken to understand the employee behaviourally then confronting the difficult employee would be much easier because you would have a better context from which to deal with the situation.
The best behavioural tool we have found is called Business DNA and it work with three basic parts of a person.
1. Strengths of the person.
These are the traits which everyone admires about a person.
These are the traits which a person can build their career around and it is highly unlikely that you are having a problem with the difficult employee around their strengths.
These will be the parts you admire and rely on to get your business going well.
2. Struggles of a person
These are the traits where difficulties arise. More often than not this is where relational difficulties are experienced and where problems emerge.
When someone is struggling they never give of their best and if you’re not aware that a person is struggling because they are different to you, then you’ll normally judge the person rather than ‘cutting them some slack’.
The most difficult thing is to realise that a person is struggling because no one wants to own up to their struggles in the work place. No one wants to admit that something is difficult for them because it might affect their future job opportunities. So they struggle in silence hoping that no one is going to notice.
You may have heard people suggest that you can turn your weaknesses into strengths. We have found that this is simply not true because for every strength, there is a corresponding struggle.
They come together as a package like two sides of the same coin. Take away the struggle and the strength goes with it so we are left with working to our strengths and managing our struggles effectively.
3. Unique relationship keys
Finding out how a person struggles is actually the key for relating to that person and without this you can inadvertently press someone’s button without realising it.
Once you do this the difficult employee will likely have a confrontation or quickly disengage from the situation leaving you with a relational mess.
Every person has keys that unlock the best in them and it is important to know this for everyone but most importantly for difficult employees.
If you have never done any behaviour work with yourself or the employees in your business then it might be time to start today. If you would like more information then click on this link
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