6 Tips For Handling Difficult Employees

Sooner or later, all managers must deal with a difficult employee - they are an unavoidable fact of business life. What is important to remember, however, is that a difficult employee is not necessarily a bad employee.

All too often, people associate "difficult" with "bad." This simply is not true. There are lots of circumstances that could lead to difficult behavior - stress at home or work, for example.

Therefore, if you find yourself tasked with handling a difficult employee, you will find the following six tips insightful.

Click here to watch a video on ways to handle a difficult employee

6 Tips For Handling Difficult Employees:

Tip #1. Evaluate The Issue - In other words, think before you act. One complaint is not reason enough to call an employee into your office for a verbal lashing. A clear understanding of the issue is required before you take any action, so consider all the relevant factors, such as the people involved and the details surrounding the situation.

Tip #2. Gather The Facts - Because the workplace is a social environment, there is bound to be rumor and hearsay - neither of which is reason enough to take action. As a manager and leader, your job is to be a mediator, to assess the situation fairly by gathering the facts. Hearsay is unreliable and easily refuted. Evidence, on the other hand, is undeniable.

Tip #3. Develop A Plan - The workplace is not the wild west - you cannot go into a situation "guns blazing." This will only exacerbate things further. Having a plan will give you more control over the situation and help maintain order and focus. Carefully decide when and where you will speak with the employee, how you want the meeting to go and whether or not others might need to be present.

Tip #4. Focus On The Problem - All too often, we let one negative aspect of someone define them entirely. This, of course, is a mistake. Just because someone is difficult does not mean they aren't good at their job. When handling a difficult employee, you need to focus on the problem, not the person. Otherwise the employee may feel like they are being personally attacked.

Tip #5. Hear Their Side - When speaking with a difficult employee, it is only fair to hear their side. Understanding the reasons behind difficult behavior is crucial to remedying them. Your job, as mediator, is to find the common ground and figure out where and how you can smooth the wrinkles over. This requires having as full of an understanding about the factors surrounding difficult behavior as you can.

Tip #6. Come To A Solution - Ultimately, your goal is to come to an agreement with the employee on how to solve the issue, otherwise it will continue to persist. The first step is for the employee to acknowledge the issue. From there, draw out a plan of action as to how it will be solved and make sure you follow-up with the employee to ensure that change is maintained.

Executive Summary: Remember, a difficult employee is not necessarily a bad employee, so focus more on the issue and less on them. This helps prevent employees from feeling as though they are being personally criticized. As a result, they will be less resistant to working out whatever is causing their difficult behavior. Once you do agree upon a solution, be sure to follow-up with the employee periodically and offer praise for their efforts.

4 Tips To Delegating Work Effectively

At some point or another, all of us must either delegate our work or accept delegated work. Nevertheless, navigating delegated work can be tricky, as it requires striking a balance between an existing workload and new work that has added weight to it. That being said, we have assembled four tips to help you and your peers delegate work with more ease.

Tip #1. Planning The Project - Proper planning is something far too many people overlook when beginning a new project. The best way to avoid hiccups down the road, and help its execution go off without a hitch, is to prepare ahead of time. Consider all the details, steps and resources required to tackle the project and then draw up an outline to act as a road map. Additionally, consider gathering the team together to get everyone's input before the project gets started.

Tip #2. Keep Communication Open And Constant - As a project progresses, if one step does not transition smoothly to the next, it is usually the result of poor communication; therefore, whenever a project is delegated to multiple employees, constant communication is crucial. And whoever is heading the project has the responsibility to not only keep the channels open, but also lead by example. Furthermore, they must maintain this level of communication until the project is completed.

Tip #3. Develop A Plan Of Action - On average, most people do not work on just one project at a time. That's why it is important to have a plan of action to ensure everyone is on the same page about a project's priority and where it fits in everyone's workload. Otherwise, you run the risk of your employees placing different priorities on their work, resulting in a breakdown in unity.

Tip #4. Proactive Follow-Up - No matter how well a project seems to be going you still need to consistently and proactively follow-up on its progress. And by taking a more proactive approach, it keeps the importance of the project on the forefront of everybody's minds and helps maintain unity during the project period. Conversely, the less communication you maintain, the less likely employees are to be on the same page.

Executive Summary: There is more to delegating work than simply dumping some of your workload on someone else's desk. At the end of the business day, no matter how you share the workload with other employees, responsibility for its completion still falls on your shoulders. Because of this, it is critical that you handle delegation effectively. By handling delegation in the manner we presented above, you can see your projects to completion with little to no complications.

6 Tips For More Effective Telephone Skills

While e-mail may be the new go-to method of communication for most people in business these days, phone conversations remain an integral part of business life.

Effective Telephone Calls Build Relationships.

There are countless benefits to keeping regular phone contact. For starters, phone calls have a more intimate touch than e-mails. This makes phone calls one of the fastest ways to build a relationship with your associates, prospects and clients. So naturally, businesses should want their entire staff to keep their telephone skills honed and sharp. To that end, we have come up with six tips designed to help anyone upgrade their telephone skills.

6 Tips To Strengthen Your Telephone Skills:

Tip #1. Exude Confidence - Your voice reflects your level of confidence, which is the phone call equivalent of a firm handshake or direct eye contact. The first step to strengthening your confidence is to make sure you know all there is to know about your product or service. Expertise breeds confidence, which will show during your conversations.

Tip #2. Exercise Clarity And Brevity - People only have so much time to spend on the phone, so it is important to keep calls short, sweet and to the point. To achieve this, it's best to have a preplanned agenda to follow for those important calls. Just be sure not to be too rigid in your structure - leave some flex room to keep the conversation casual.

Tip #3. Use The Person's Name - Using a person's name in conversation, especially more than once, is a great way to build rapport. The more at ease the person you are speaking to feels, the more receptive they will be to your phone call. Plus, it is a great way to remember a person's name. Conversely, sounding impersonal will cause someone to feel as though they are just another name on your big list of people to call.

Tip #4. Remain Enthusiastic - Enthusiasm is generally contagious. If you can remain enthusiastic during a phone call, there is a pretty good chance the person on the other end of the line will get as wrapped up in it as you are. Besides, how can you expect others to get excited about your product or service if you are not?

Tip #5. Add Some Humor - Being humorous helps keep things conversational and away from sounding overly formal, stiff or generic. Humor can be tricky, however. The right amount needs to be applied so that the conversation does not become saturated with it. Furthermore, humor needs to be in good taste, not to mention relevant. Random jokes will come off as jarring and strange.

Tip #6. Keep Your Cool - In other words, relax. While less intimidating than a face-to-face meeting, phone calls still make some people feel nervous. Instead of focusing on your apprehension, try to explore positive angles. All the while, take deep, even breaths to get oxygen into your blood and help you level out.

Executive Summary: Avoid getting too wrapped up in the ease and convenience of e-mail. As easy as e-mails are to compose and send out, they are just as easy for your clients or prospects to dismiss. That is why the good old-fashioned phone call is still the best way to build relationships. Phone calls are personal, engaging and require that both parties participate actively.

3 Steps To Conducting Your Performance Reviews (Part 2 of 2)

Last week, we kicked off a discussion about conducting employee performance reviews by talking about the first step managers should take: Issuing employee self-evaluation forms. We determined that the self-evaluations influence how well the actual reviews go, and that self-evaluations help make the review process more of a give-and-take experience.

Now we will wrap things up with the last two steps, which focus more on the actual employee performance review itself. Specifically, how you can make the review process less arduous by taking the time to prepare accordingly and how you need to implement an effective rating system that is easy to understand but still fair.

So, to help get the most out of your employee performance reviews, check out the final two steps below.

3 Steps To Conducting An Effective Employee Performance Review (Steps 2 & 3):

Step 2: Prepare For The Review.

One of the biggest mistakes managers make is rushing through employee reviews to get them over and done with. This, of course, benefits no one. It does not benefit your employees, and it certainly does not benefit your business. If you want to make the review process move quickly and easily, take the time to prepare beforehand. Not only will this help expedite the actual review process, it will also make it less laborious.

To prepare for an employee performance review:

• Review the employee's job description.
• Write an agenda for the meeting.
• Think about what you want employees to take from the review.
• Schedule reviews in advance; never spring them on an employee without notice.
• Review the performance measures you will use for assessment.

Step 3: Implement A Fair And Consistent Rating System.

Quantifying performance review data can be a difficult process. Arbitrary numbers and grades do not tell you a whole lot-what a "7" means to one person might be entirely different to someone else. The best approach to a rating system we have seen is the Unsatisfactory to Exceptional scale:

• Unsatisfactory: The employee's work is well below the minimum level of performance. The employee must make significant improvements to their work.
• Below Average: The employee's work meets some of the minimum levels of performance, but not all. As a result, the employee must immediately improve in some aspect of their work.
• Satisfactory: The employee's work meets all minimum levels of performance and meets all minimum levels of performance, even excelling in some areas.
• Above Average: The employee's work is above minimum levels of performance. The employee shows initiative and investment in the business' success.
• Exceptional: The employee's work exhibits superior levels of performance and their work has had a direct impact on the overall success of the company.

Furthermore, be sure to provide employees with a ratings key complete with short, 1-2 sentence descriptions of what each rating means, similar to our example above. This helps ensure everyone is on the same page as far as what a rating means exactly. The trick is to strike a balance between being too specific and being too vague.

3 Steps To Conducting Your Performance Reviews (Part 1 of 2)

About this time of year, most businesses begin to conduct their employee performance reviews. Typically, many managers do not enjoy conducting employee performance reviews, and to make matters worse, do not know the proper techniques to getting a review done properly.

Ultimately, performance reviews are an extremely useful tool for both employee and employer. Employees are able to gain insight on where they stand in the eyes of their manager, while managers gain the opportunity to address matters on a one-on-one basis.

To help make your employee review process go smoothly for everyone involved, we have listed below the three most crucial steps that need to be taken for an effective employee performance review.

3 Steps To Conducting An Effective Employee Performance Review (Step 1):

Step 1: Have The Employee Conduct A Self-Evaluation.

Before sitting down for the actual review, have employees fill out a self-evaluation form. This gives employees an idea of what they are in store for during the actual review. Furthermore, it gets employees actively thinking about the work they have done in the past year. Additional benefits of self-evaluations include:

• Involving multiple perspectives in the eventual performance review. Managers cannot remember everything, and even if they can, they only bring one perspective to the table.
• Alerting management of any disparities between what they think an employee's performance has been and what the employee thinks.
• Showing employees that the review process is one of give-and-take-that they have a say in the process.

The mark of a good employee self-evaluation form is the quality of its questions. Here are some examples of general questions to include in a self-evaluation form:

• What work did you enjoy the most and why?
• What skills and talents helped you achieve success?
• What was the most difficult or challenging work you have done?
• What results make you the most proud?
• What existing or new skills would you like to develop in the coming year?
• Are there any new projects or other assignments you would like to do?

Executive Summary: The first step in conducting employee performance reviews is to send out a self-evaluation form a few days prior to the actual reviews. This gives your employees time to prepare for the review by actively thinking about their work in the past year. A good self-evaluation form is defined by the quality of its questions, so take the time to develop questions that will benefit both the employee and your business.