By Jamillah Warner
Part 2 of a 5-part series on team building business solutions.
If you’re in business, then your team is just as important as your brand. These are the people who will help you build your business. But if you don’t get along with some of your team members and they drive you a little nutty, there are two things to consider before you start firing people.
A reader named “Baffled Boss” shared a concern with Anne Fisher, the expert behind the Ask Annie column at CNN Money. This perplexed boss lamented, “One of our most talented people is also the most difficult and unpredictable. He has terrific ideas …. However, he’s not at all interested in project deadlines, he’s dismissive of other people’s ideas, and he’s so absorbed in his own work that he misses a lot of meetings, so he’s never quite up to speed with the details of what’s going on.”
Following the advice of Katherine Graham Leviss, author of “High-Maintenance Employees: Why Your Best People Will Also Be Your Most Difficult … And What To Do About It,” Ask Annie offers a few tips to help you manage this type of employee, such as clarifying your expectations and assigning specific tasks that the difficult team member can “own.” It’s advice that would work for several personality types on your team. Here are a couple more methods you might consider:
Set Up a Consistent Process
In the absence of structure, people will create their own rules. If you don’t set up a system, what Leviss deems a ”high-maintenance high-performance” (HMHP) employee will do it on their own — “and that can lead to chaos,” she says. Their system may not value your time frame and those of the other members on your team.
In your business, you want each person to do what they do best. Let this creative team member solve those impossible problems. But find
Get the right mix of players and you’ve found yourself a business solution to your team problem.
a more methodical player to establish and monitor timelines for completing the project. This is a major step, but it’s not the only key to managing a talented team that produces quality solutions in a dynamic environment.
Focused Leadership
According to Geoffrey James, “Extraordinary bosses see their company as a collection of individual hopes and dreams, all connected to a higher purpose.” In an article for Inc., James says, “they inspire employees to dedicate themselves to the success of their peers and therefore to the community–and company–at large.” And that inspiration takes effort.
Leading your team requires you to focus in on the people that help you manage your brand. Effectively moving your team forward is a skill, not an afterthought. You can’t just phone it in.
If your employee drives you crazy because she doesn’t do things the way you do them, then take a step back. Pay attention to the person’s impact to the company. If this person is making a worthwhile contribution, then put some energy into learning how to manage this person and the other dynamic personalities on your team.
Part 3 of this 5 part series will address three key advisors that every small business owner needs in order to protect, strategize and constantly move his or her business forward.
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This post Team Building: Handling The Hard-To-Handle was first published on the Big Ideas Blog.