One Way to Deal with a Difficult Employee

One Way to Deal with a Difficult Employee

Are you frustrated by that “difficult” employee who never seems to do things quite right and takes up so much of your time and attention? It’s very easy to fall into the trap of condemning that person as a no-hoper or a problem child. But have you ever considered why they might be behaving badly? It could be that they have a massive need for acknowledgement.

Acknowledgement is about recognition or attention from another person. It can be physical such as - a pat on the back, a touch or a handshake. It can also be psychological such as – a word of praise, a compliment, even a “hello!” It can even just be time spent with the person.
Physical and psychological attentions are absolutely vital to human beings. We all need it and we need it every day. However, it must be said that every human being has a different level of need for acknowledgement. Some people need a lot, others less so.

The need for acknowledgement is something that’s programmed into us. Babies and children have a huge need for physical acknowledgement. You can see that demonstrated by the way they reach out for you, how they want to be held and cuddled. Research has shown that infants who are denied this physical acknowledgement can suffer both in their physical and emotional growth.

A human’s need for acknowledgement is so strong that they’ll sometimes behave badly to get that acknowledgement. I’m sure you’re aware of children who behave badly in school just to get attention - well, adults do it too.
That person in your team, who gives you all sorts of problems which are often difficult to understand, may just be seeking acknowledgement.

Here’s one way to deal with a “difficult” employee. Try concentrating on what they do well and tell them about it. Spend less time with and even ignore them when they behave badly. It’s not uncommon for managers to invest 90 per cent of their energy responding to negative performance and only 10 per cent strengthening positive performance. If you “reward” good behaviour - you’ll get more of it. If you “reward” bad behaviour – you’ll get more of it.
Believe me; once you start to apply this, you’ll make your life much easier, have less stress and more productive employees.

Managing People - No more Mr Tough Guy

Managing People – No more Mr Tough Guy

You might disagree but hear me out on this – I believe the media and our culture sends the wrong messages about how to manage people and this makes it difficult for Business Owners, Managers and Team Leaders.

The UK edition of the television show, The Apprentice, has just started a new series on BBC Two. The US edition is about to start its fifth season on NBC.
In case you haven’t seen it – it’s the show that pits the hungriest business brains against each other to see which one is worthy of a six figure salary and the chance to become Sir Alan Sugar’s “apprentice.” In the US, Donald Trump is the man the contestants have to impress.
Both of these high flying self-made billionaires are portrayed as tough no nonsense individuals. Their catch phrase is – “Your Fired!”

We’ve all heard the old cliché “nice guys don’t finish first” and that has a huge impact on how managers deal with their people. We’re led to believe that successful managers are tough, courageous “no nonsense” type of people. And if you’re weak or soft with your people, then you’ll get walked on and taken advantage of.

A manager will often look at “successful” managers in business or sport to try and understand what makes them successful. The media often portrays these people as tough guys who drive their people by the force of their personality, shouts and threats - no wimps allowed.

Jack Welch the ex CEO of General Electric writes in his book “jack” –
“Strong managers who make tough decisions to cut jobs provide the only true job security in today’s world. Weak managers are the problem. Weak managers destroy jobs”.

Now that statement may be true however it leads managers to believe that they most certainly have to be strong. There’s no way that a manager wants to be perceived as weak.  However, it’s how you define tough and strong that decides how successful a manager you’ll be.

We’re all aware of the big tough sports coaches who run successful teams. In the United States the legendary Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman, often billed as the greatest coach in hockey, was well known as a relentless, heartless and humourless task master.
Another legend, football coach, Vince Lombardi, was known to work his teams hard. He pushed his players and made them repeat plays over and over till they got it right. He yelled at his teams for any mistakes, even after games they had won. One of his famous lines is - “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”
He had rigid rules, imposed discipline and had no tolerance for mistakes.

Sir Alex Ferguson, Europe’s most successful soccer coach was once in the news due to a dressing room incident at Manchester United. The team had just lost a game that he felt they shouldn’t have lost and he was letting the players know how he felt about that. Apparently, in his temper, he kicked a football boot across the dressing room and hit one of his star players, David Beckham, just above the eye.

Unfortunately the media presents these situations and character traits as what makes a successful manager. Managers and particularly those new to a leadership role, try to model themselves on those that they read about and see on TV.
In a recent seminar I asked a young manager why she thought Roy Keane played so well under Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United - “It’s because Alex regularly kicks his ass” was her reply. Now Roy Keane is a real tough guy player known for his hard and uncompromising style on the soccer field. I asked this young manager how she thought Roy would respond to having his ass kicked regularly. She didn’t seem to have an answer to that.
Here are some other comments I’ve read about successful sports coaches and managers -
John Wooden -
“One of the true gentlemen in sports or any other walk of life”
“He taught them to be good people, good sports and still be competitive”

Scotty Bowman -
“A great sense of humour that people never see”
“Deep down, a caring man”

Mike Krzyzewski -
“You cannot mistake the fact that he loves his players. He cares about their schooling and them being model citizens”
“Coach K still puts up the wins proving once and for all nice guys can finish first”

Wayne Graham, baseball coach, Rice University:
“A demanding coach is redundant. If they are going to be happy with you and produce, they have to know you care”

Managers are misreading the signs sent by the media and our culture and it’s creating difficulty for them. Some managers can adopt the tough guy approach very easily but most feel uneasy with it. The ones, who’re uneasy, in an attempt not to be seen as weak, then manage their people in a way that makes them as a manager feel uncomfortable. This ultimately causes problems with their teams. I think we should look at what really makes a successful manager and it certainly isn’t just about being a “tough guy.”

3 Simple Steps to Handling Sales Resistance

3 Simple Steps to Handling Sales Resistance

Let’s face it; handling sales resistance or objections, as some people like to call it, is the hardest part of the sales process. Here are 3 simple steps to deal with resistance; or to put it another way - indifference.
Customers rarely object to your sales proposal they are often only indifferent to it.
You usually encounter indifference because potential customers:
 
a. are using a competitors product or serviceb. they don't realise that it's possible to improve their current circumstancesc. they don't see the importance of improving their current circumstances
 
1. Acknowledge the customers point of view. - Say something like - "I appreciate that you're happy with your current supplier," or "I understand that you're not experiencing any problems at present."
 
2. Request permission to ask a few questions. - Say - "I wonder if I might ask you a few brief questions about how you currently organise your supplies. We've worked with businesses similar to your own and there may be things we’ve learned that would be of value to you. Would that be OK?"
 
3. Ask questions. - Once you've received permission to ask questions you want to explore the customers’ circumstances for opportunities and hopefully, establish a need. It's important to ask questions that relate to the benefits of your product or service, however, don't make it too obvious.
It's important that the customer believes that you have a genuine interest in his or her business. To give you some examples - If I was selling a sales or customer service course to an indifferent customer I might ask questions such as:  
   "How do you currently find new customers?"   "How many customers do you lose per month?"   "How much does it cost you to find a new customer?"   When you start to receive some answers from the customer you then want to establish what effect it has on the business or on the customer personally. You would ask questions such as:   
   "How do you feel about that situation?"   "How does that affect your productivity?"   "What impact does that have on your business?"
 
What you're attempting to do his plant some thoughts in the customers mind and hopefully establish a need. To establish if a need exists, ask questions such as:   
   "Would it be important to do something about that?"   "Is that a problem you'd be interested in solving?"   "Would you like to find a solution to that?"
 
If the customer says yes then you can follow up with a benefit statement about your product or service. If they say no, then at least you've created an awareness of condition that might be important one day - and one that you can deal with.
As I've said before, handling resistance is the hardest part of the sales process however that's why sales people have jobs. If every potential customer beat a path to your door than there wouldn't be a need for sales people. As long as we realise that we can deal with resistance in a professional manner and although we won't win every time, we will have more successes.
So, go ahead, give these three point a try and I wish you every success. "You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions." - Naguib Mahfouz - Nobel Prize Winner