Are You the Cause of the "Problem Employee"?

Are You the Cause of the “Problem Employee”?

Whether you are in the business of providing products or services, it is generally indisputable that your employees are your greatest asset.  We call them our human resources because they are who we count on to make our business grow.  People do business with people, not businesses of brick and mortar; your unique human resources – your people – are you competitive advantage.

There is wisdom in the admonition to “protect your front door and throw out the key to your back door.”  In other words, you protect and enhance your valuable human resources by hiring top talent in the first place (“your front door”) and then promoting the work environment that prevents these good employees from leaving your company.

That’s all well and good if you have a stellar team of employees that are engaged and motivated.  Unfortunately, not all of your employees may fit that description.

Do you have a “problem” employee or employee?  Are you frustrated with feeling like a baby sitter, always trying to motivate your team to perform?  Do you feel like you’re spinning your wheels, constantly putting out fires, instead of working on your business?

If so, it may be surprising to learn that you – the manager or supervisor (who may also be the owner, in some cases) – may be the “problem” in your problem employee.

Managers spend a lot of time trying to motivate their employees.  They try to hold them accountable with the hope of building responsible and productive employees.

Have you noticed that neither bribery, micromanaging (read, “babysitting”), or ruling with the iron fist has ever produced motivated employees?  That is because those strategies simply do not work.  Yet, owners and managers insist on these tactics to somehow coerce their employees into being motivated to work hard.

What is needed is a paradigm shift, a fresh approach to thinking about motivation and productivity.  You, the manager, are not responsible to motivate employees.  No one can get someone to do something or make them do it.

The truth is, everyone is motivated.  The challenge is creating the environment that is motivating toward work-related priorities.

Different things motivate different people, but most of these can be distilled down to three things.  Employees need

1. To feel a sense of ownership of their job,
2. To feel appreciated for their contributions, and
3. To feel trusted to make sound decisions.
   

Without these elements, poor performers will continue to do just enough to “get by,” and good performers will walk out the door to a competitor who will offer them these things.

What are you doing that may be de-motivating your employees?  There are basically four principal reasons why you have a problem employee.  In each instance, it is important to ask yourself – not the problem employee – why this is the case.

1. The employee doesn’t know what you want them to do.  How can an employee “own” their job if they do not know what is expected of them?  Don’t be a passive communicator.  “Could you do this when you get a chance?” doesn’t communicate adequately that you want a certain thing accomplished now.  Clearly state what you need, give a specific timeline, and reinforce the behavior with frequent feedback.
   
   
2. The employee can’t do what you want them to do.  Is she trained?  Was there sufficient training?  Was the training conducted by the right person?  Do not set your employees up for failure by failing them.
   
   
3. The employee is not allowed to do what you want them to do.  Is there too much interference for them to get the job done?  Can something less important be delegated to someone else?
   
   Sometimes the challenge is that the employee doesn’t have the correct tools to perform the job successfully.  One manager of a large hotel put the head housekeeper in charge of the daily carpet vacuuming on each hall of its 17 floors.  However, only two floors were consistently being cleaned.
   
   This was clearly a problem.
   
   Eventually the manager found that all that the housekeeper had at his disposal was a small vacuum cleaner designed for home use.  The manager promptly ordered a large commercial cleaner that spanned the entire width of the hall and required only one sweep through the hall to get the job done.  Proving the right tools makes all the difference in the world.
   
   
4. The employee won’t do what you want them to do.  Again, you cannot make anyone do anything, and there may be little choice but to let the problem employee go.  However, first check carefully to see whether the first three reasons are not causing or affecting the fourth.
   

The challenge is balancing employee needs with organizational ones.  Employees need to know clearly what is expected of them.

At the same time, endless rules and regulations can be overly restrictive, sending the message that your employees are children that are incapable of making good decisions.  This puts you back into the babysitting role, policing your employees’ every move.

Rather than a rule-laden employee manual, include just the minimum required to legally protect your organization and to maintain workplace order.  Then, be sure that workplace rules are consistently applied to everyone.  There is nothing more demoralizing than a manager who excuses the abuses of “favorites” and punishes the rest for the same or lesser infractions.

One of the best ways to create ownership, responsibility, and a motivated workforce is to involve employees in decision-making.  That new employee manual?  Enlist employees' help in drafting it.

That new attendance policy?  Don’t simply announce what it will be from now on.  Ask employees to create it.

People are naturally more likely to follow rules they have made themselves.

When there is a clear expectation that you desire involvement from your employees, and when that involvement is recognized and rewarded, you are creating the motivating environment you desire.  Doing these things will prevent “the problem employee” in the first place.

With honest effort, it can also change the dynamics of your current work group as your employees powerfully sef-motivate to perform in an organization they feel is their own.