Staff Management Tips

In any relationship, weather it’s on a friendship level, relationship level, or a parent/child level, no one likes being talked at. It’s a very demeaning way to communicate with someone. The same is true of relationships at work. No member of your staff likes being talked at but they like to be talked to. They all deserve that much. Sadly though, that isn’t the case in many workplaces today.

I was in our local fast food giant outlet the other day and while I was waiting, I saw something that nearly made me want to jump the counter and smack the duty manager over the head a tray or whatever was closest. I know this happens all the time at these types of establishments and I have written about it in a previous post, but every time I see it, it makes my blood boil. The duty manager was berating a staff member in front of the whole store. It was over something very simple and when the staff member tried to tell her what was happening, she didn’t want to listen. She just went on and on and was basically talking at her staff member. I couldn’t help myself and I mentioned to her what I saw that had happened and she just gave me daggers! I could see then that this woman has no idea what communication is all about.

I read a story once about a guy who treated his staff so badly that one night he sat down in his office and noticed a courier delivery on his desk. He opened the envelope and saw a ton of keys in it. As it turned out, he owned several retail outlets and all of his managers got together and decided to close all the shops and hand back the keys in protest of the way they were treated. Consequently, he went bankrupt nearly overnight! A hefty price to pay for talking at your staff instead of with them.

Please, don’t fall into this trap. Staff members can do two things immediately if you treat them right. They can save you money and they can bring in new paying customers. They can also be motivated in doing better because they will enjoy being at work more. Money is not a great motivator for most people, but job satisfaction is. It’s your staff that can make you or break you quite simply. If they see they are treated properly by you as a manager,  they will be loyal. If you treat them like that store owner, they will break you. Make no mistake about that.

One of the skills you have to master in management is communication. To effectively communicate with someone  means to talk and to listen. If you don’t listen, then you shouldn’t be talking. If you don’t listen, then you are talking at someone and not with. As that story illustrated, by doing the latter, it can have disastrous consequences at times.

In every organization, each year they hire many new employees. Most companies have a new employee checklist and put them through a new employee induction of some sort. However, the sad truth is that many of these new employees just do not work out. Right from the outset I will say that generally the only ones to blame for that are the ones that hired them. If you as a manager are responsible for hiring new employees and they fail before or just on the ‘honeymoon period’ or the initial first three month probation period, then you screwed up. How?

First and foremost, you probably grabbed the first person that seemed a reasonable fit. I’ve done it many times. One case I can remember like it happened yesterday. My manager was putting pressure on me to get staff numbers up as quickly as possible or according to him, we would miss budget for the year. So, I put a hasty ad in the paper and all the usual methods in place. There was a guy in the telemarketing department that heard we were hiring sales people and he approached me and asked if he could get an interview for the position. We talked for over an hour about stuff and in the end I decided, what the heck, I’ll hire him.. he seems OK. Bad decision! We had nothing but major issues with him as he turned out to be the office psychopath. He was  very hard to get rid of as he threatened legal action if we ever sacked him.

Another reason is that often times new employees have no or not enough of an induction as to how the company works, what the methods are and how they fit into the companies scheme of things. They walk around blind. One guy that was recruited not by me this time, I found walking around the office looking lost. I asked him who he was and when he told me that the guy who hired him just told him to find a desk and get on with it, I was shocked. He was about to walk out when I found him as he was very disillusioned with the company…in his first hour! He turned out to be one of our top sales people in the end.

One of the worst ones in my mind is poor or no performance management for new employees. How are they going to know that what they’re doing is correct and what’s expected of them if they never hear it from you? A lot of managers just sack people like that instead of coaching them in the methods of the company.

Not far behind that last reason why it’s usually a managers fault why so many new employees fail, is a change in boundaries. Meaning, you might have hired them for one position and then changed the role after they were hired. It’s happened to me before. The humiliating thing about it is it’s not usually changed to a better role, but for a lesser role. I think that is very rude and very humiliating for a new employee.  Don’t let it happen to anyone new that you have hired. It’s unethical as well as in some places illegal.

If you have a position to fill, then start by making very clear what the role actually is and not make it up as you go. Then, be 100% clear on the type of person that would suit the role best and don’t just hire someone because you like them. When you have found someone, make them feel welcome, put them through an employee induction and be clear what it is you expect from them, what their role is, how they can attain their goals, what the company policies are and so on. If they lose their way a little, coach them back. It’s all part of your position as a manager.

It takes a lot of effort and time on your part when you have new employees under your wing. However, the rewards are immense if you succeed in keeping a good employee. If you coach and nurture one, it’s far easier in the long run to do that than it is to keep hiring new employees all the time.

We all have them. Those annoying, manipulative backstabbing colleagues. We normally label them as the ‘office psychopath’. Male, female, it doesn’t matter. In fact, Dr John Clarke, a lecturer at the Continuing Education Center at the University of Sydney and the author of two books on psychopaths says that 1-3 per cent of adult males are psychopaths, but less than 1 per cent of women – meaning perhaps 100,000 are working in a city like Melbourne. That’s a hell of a lot of annoying people, male or female so chances are you have or have had or will have one of them where you work.

It’s important to know the difference between a person that’s termed as an office psychopath and and a person that is just manipulative and outright annoying. According to Dr. John Clarke, an office psychopath is a person who has a  superficial charm and excessive sense of self-worth, can control themselves but just don’t bother to do so, have a glib outlook, generally have short term relationships, a parasitic lifestyle, don’t accept any responsibility for their actions, are impulsive, don’t have any long term goals. They’re also the types who would rather steal a Rolex than save up for one. It’s bad enough working with one of these types but imagine working for one? Dr. John spoke of a man like this. This man was earning over $500,000 a year running a call center so he was in a position of quite some power. He only hired 3 types of women: 1. women who would do anything to get to the top, 2. women with poor body image he could manipulate through sex and 3. older women he could dominate. This man had sex with 17 of the women working at the center and he was working on the rest. Granted, not all office psychopaths are that extreme but you get the picture. Most people we label as an office psychopath are just generally annoying.

You as a manager will, have or are facing some people such as these. What is the best way to handle such people? According to Dr. John, “a management plan for psychopaths is to reinforce their good skills and punish the bad ones. But the best plan is to educate employees about how they operate, and engage them in team building and life coaching to add to their esteem.” To do that, there are some easy methods you can try next time this type of person surfaces in your work place.

1. Back stabbing types love to put others down while elevating themselves. The best way to counter this is to build up your allies in the office, put a stop to any rumours started by these people and hold them accountable. Ask them some very direct questions such as “where did you hear that from, I need names.”

2. Bullies are always fed on fear. Once they have a person in their sights and they sense intimidation, they strike. The best deflection is humor. Put it back on them and turn the joke on them. Walking away is often the best one  and say something like, “I’ll talk with you once you show a bit more respect”.

3. For the constant whingers and whiners in your office: don’t give them the attention they are looking for when they do that. By listening to their negativity and letting them go on and on, you are making it worse. Instead, try asking some very direct questions after you have heard their complaint. Maybe something like, ” I don’t understand but tell me more so that I can understand”, or “what do you suggest we can do about that” or even, “if we do X Y or Z, would that help”? Listen to their complaint by all means but take control of the conversation once you know what the issues are and suggest a solution straight away. By doing this to people that love to whinge and whine, they will eventually get the message that you don’t want to focus on the problem but rather the solution.

4. Control freaks feel that there is only one way to do things and that’s theirs. All other ways are wrong. When they start telling you this then respond with a simple phrase like, “I want you to….” Give them a direction. There’s nothing wrong with listening to someones point of view on another way of doing something but people like this wont listen so don’t even engage them in a conversation about it.

5. And lastly for all those lazy and avoiding type members of your staff. These people generally need very active management from you. When engaging them in a project or task, tell them exactly what you need them to do and how long they have to complete it. You might even need to send them reminders through emails, text messages from time to time to keep them on track. However, don’t mother them as this will make them even more lazy and not take any responsibility for themselves as they know someone else will.

If you are ever faced with these types of people and believe me, if you haven’t already, you inevitably will, try out those simple methods in dealing with them. I have tried them all in places I have worked at as well as in other day to day situations where I  have had to deal with other people. Handling the office psychopath is a challenge, but with the right tools at your disposal, you can stop them from making your life as a manager a total misery.