Delivering Bad News Tactfully and Effectively

Kenneth Thames

Delivering Bad News Tactfully and Effectively

COM 480

Dan Tinianow

May 26, 2014

When dealing with any employee and their job performance, it is important to approach the matter in a personal matter. It is important when dealing with difficult employees to act quickly. Often you will need to act almost immediately to neutralize a dangerous situation. However, it is always appropriate to think before you act (Reh, 2014). With an employee who is know to be hostile and combative it is very important to have a paper trail of proof to show the employee personally. The first step I would do to approach my employee would be to send a personal email to schedule a face-to-face meeting. That gives the employee a chance to respond with any questions and show that there was contacted attempted. Many people who have a combative personality tend to be very defensive. Having physical proof of their professional performance makes it harder for them to argue their counter point. Armed with accurate data and examples, the manager needs to then take this person into a conference room or office--away from others--and calmly address the issue. To begin, the manager needs to ask the employee if he is aware of any ongoing issues to determine if the difficult person is aware of the problems (Javitch, 2009). It is also important to let the employee know why you hired them in the first place and comment on their strong points so they do not feel attacked. It is always important for an employee to feel like they are worthy and have potential to grow if they want to. My job as a manager is to not only let an employee know what they can be doing better, but also set an action plan the employee can follow to better their job performance. I would analyze the employee's behavioral patterns with our customers and break down how to treat them better and the effects that bad customer service has on our company. I would also discuss what is considered professional behavior via the company's handbook and ensure the employee knows what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior at work. When confronting the problem it is also important to use selective languages. Though the employee is known in the office as confrontational, I can only judge the behaviors I have seen. A manager must focus on the inappropriate behavior; don't attack the person. To make an employee feel less attacked, a manager should use "I" statements like "I need everybody on the team here on time so we can meet our goals" rather than "you" statements like "you are always late". It is also important to take into consideration the inappropriate behavior is caused by negative intent. It may be from fear, confusion, lack of motivation, personal problems, etc (Reh, 2014). It is very important to empathize with the employee because you never know what someone is going through. Coming to an employee from a personal level also shows that your intent is to help address and resolve the problem rather than just get rid of them. A manager must give the employee a chance to develop a solution to the problem. They are more likely to "own" the solution if they are at least partially responsible for developing it (Reh, 2014).

It would be hard to gauge exactly how an employee may react to the meeting, but it is also going to be mighty hard for their to be a negative outcome when taking these steps toward a resolution. Once the employee begins to understand that these negative behaviors are real and experienced by others in the organization, the manager or someone from human resources should begin to coach the difficult employee in displaying more acceptable and appropriate behaviors. The employee needs time and practice in "trying on" new, more suitable behaviors. HR and/or the manager need to provide specific feedback to this employee on the success or failure of his efforts in minimizing the negative actions and implementing ones that are more positive (Javitch, 2009). I would consider this type of conflict resolution as a win-win. The employee is not only aware of their actions and how they may come off to others, but they now have an action plan to follow that they helped develop themselves. With the employee being aware of their behaviors, they can now correct it and know they are truly an asset to the company.

 


References:
Javitch, D. (2009, May 31). 5 Steps to Deal with Difficult Employees - Dealing with employees. Entrepreneur. Retrieved May 24, 2014, from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/201950

Reh, J. (n.d.). How to Deal With Difficult Employees (Without Firing Them). About.com Management & Leadership. Retrieved May 22, 2014, from http://management.about.com/od/employeemotivation/a/DifficultEE0605.htm