Recommendations for Dealing with Challenging Staff

You may find that you have a staff member that is a challege to work with. The following are recommendation to help you manage through the challenge.

1. First keep in mind that a good leader will have challenges. The universe often provides us with challenges to help us realize our weaknesses and help us evolve.

2. We can never control another person. Most conflicts arise due to ego. Ego meaning the perception of our self that we hold in our mind and how we think the world should respond to us. You will find that when you let go of any ideas of self and not take things personally, that you will more accurately see the situation and be able to respond to it rather than react to it. Reacting often results in an unbalanced state of mind, lack of mental clarity, and state of emotional weakness. When we stop thinking of our self and perceive the situation as it is, then we can respond in a clear state of mind to the challenge at hand.

From my experience, the best way to deal with negative people is to be kind, polite, and professional. Usually if they cannot get a reaction from you then they back off.

3. Speak to the person and communicate your concern. If that does not resolve the situation then escalate to your manage for recommendations. During this process be kind, polite, professional, and keep in mind that all things will pass. The one constant in this world is change.

4. Another strategy is to go to lunch or do some off site activity and try to get to know the person better. You can build a relationship this way that will impact your work life.

Finally, keep in mind that a good leader is a good follower. It is not necessary to assert ourselves on others nor require them to respond to us in a specific way in order to be an excellent leader.

What additional questions or comments do you have?

Productivity tip #6 - Weekly Status Report

Weekly status reports are short and simple. Monthly status reports contain more detail. Go to my website and login to pick up your free project management templates, including various weekly and monthy status report templates.

- If it takes you more than 15-30 minutes to complete the status report then there is an issue with the status report template you are using.

- A good status report template has instructions.

- If you have metrics such as 'probability' you must include a legend that defines what 1-5 means. If some one hands you a status report template with metrics of 1-10 ask them why they need 10 numbers. An effective impact and probabilty scale has 5 options NOT 10 or more.

- Be aware of content areas in the status report. Do not duplicate information in the report. Do not exepect users to duplicate information that they maintain in a 'CHAIR' log (changes, action items, issues, and risks) or project schedule.

- If you are trying to introduce standards into an organization that has none you need to make your templates simple, clear to understand,short (one page), and user friendly.

If you apply these tips you will be able to get more done.

Managing resistance tip. #1 - Your Approach Matters

It is rather common to experience resistance to project management best practices. You will set up processes and procedures and there will inevitably be some people who just won't use them, and they may even be very vocal about their perspective for not using the processes and procedures. In most cases these people have difficulty delivering successful projects. They are consistently late, over budget, and / or do not deliver what was exected. These are often people who get emotional and think that using a project schedule is a waist of time. You will find that they create a schedule and never update it properly. These people typically exist in reaction mode and are some what disorganized.

First of all forcing anyone to do anything will not boost your popularity. Force typically makes the resistor dig in their heels. It really takes a gental approach to win them over.

How to win them over? First step is for you to observe the environment and see how people work.

Keep in mind that most emotional reactions are due to the ego. Many people are afraid to admit that they do not know something so they try to cover it up with emotional reactions. During their reaction they will try to blame you and / or your processes as being a waist of time and simply not needed. Don't argue with them. Instead listen and aknowledge their points.

You will need to take baby steps but you will find that these people will ultimately state that they need something, and that is your doorway to offer to help them. When you have the opportunity to help them you will use the best practices techniques and present them in a way to offer assistance to their success. More like a teacher instead of a dictator. You will find that resistent people can turn around if you approach them in a way that empowers them and makes them feel good.


...more to come!