In a Nutshell
What's the best way to handle
an employee with an attitude or motivation problem? Managerial counseling
is normally the best first step.
When a valued employee is
having problems with his or her attitude, motivation or personal affairs,
managers can often help them make the necessary changes through counseling.
This is not to say that managerial counseling always solves employees'
problems. Nor do I mean to suggest that managers are always the best
ones to provide the counseling. However, even when managerial counseling
is not sufficient for dealing with the problem, it is a good precursor
to (a) referral to professional counseling or (b) termination.
In This Issue
You Have
to Really Care and Really Listen
I don't think you can counsel
your employees effectively if you don't truly care about them, because
effective counseling can be hard work. A major way in which human
resources differ from the other resources you control as a manager is that
humans have emotions. We profit from the positive emotions like excitement
and inspiration, but we also have to accept and manage effectively the
negative emotions such as anger and frustration. It takes work to
deal with the negative side of employees' emotions. Managerial counseling
requires listening
effectively and supportive
communication. It's a lot easier to just be a hard-nosed, "my
way or the highway" manager. But, managers who can counsel their
employees get the most out of them in difficult circumstances.
Counseling
Doesn't Mean Lowering Standards!
Whether you are counseling
or coaching in response to poor performance, the goal is the same--to get
that poorly performing employee's performance back up to standards (or
back into conformance with the rules). I know that every now and
then you may come across a subordinate who is manipulative or full of malarkey.
I still think that unless those employees have done something that justifies
immediate termination, the best way to deal with them is to listen to their
story at least once. Listening to their story and validating their
feelings doesn't mean that you accept their poor performance. After
you've listened to their story and empathized, come up with a plan for
improving performance. That's always the goal.
Managers Aren't Therapists
I strongly recommend that
you avoid asking pointed questions or making assumptions about your employees'
personal lives. Legally and ethically, employees have a variety of
privacy rights. When counseling, focus on the work-related problem.
The work-related problem is often (perhaps usually) the symptom of a personal
problem, but only discuss the personal issues if the employee you're counseling
raises them, and refer the employee to professional counseling for anything
of a serious nature. For example, here's what I'm suggesting.
Appropriate:
You seem distracted at work and your productivity has fallen
off. I really need you to be more productive. Is there anything
I can help you with?
Inappropriate:
Are you having marital problems?
or
I think your drinking in the evenings is interfering
with your job performance.
You can only comment on what you observe employees actually doing or
the actual results they achieve. Making assumptions about personal
problems is very risky and sometimes unfair. For instance, diabetics
have occasionally been mistaken for alcoholics. You wouldn't want
to make a mistake like that!
Practicing This Management Skill
Prior to meeting with the employee �
Sources
Minter, R. L. & Thomas,
E. G. (2000). Employee development through coaching, mentoring
and counseling: A multidimensional approach. Review of Business,
21(1/2): 43-47.
Salters, L. (1997).
Coaching and counseling for peak performance. Business and Economic
Review, 44(1): 26-28.
Stone, F. M. (1999).
Coaching,
counseling & mentoring: How to choose & use the right technique
to boost employee performance. New York: AMACOM.
About the Newsletter
and Subscriptions
The LeaderLetter
is written by Dr. Scott Williams, Department of Management, Raj
Soin College of Business, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.
It is a supplement to my MBA 751 - Managing People in Organizations class.
It is intended to reinforce the course concepts and maintain communication
among my former MBA 751 students, but anyone is welcome to subscribe.
In addition, subscribers are welcome to forward this newsletter to anyone
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E-mail Your Comments
Whether you are one of my
former students or not, I invite you to share any insights or concerns
you have regarding the topic of this newsletter or any other topic relating
to management skills. Please e-mail
them to me. Our interactions have been invaluable. Let's keep
the conversation going.
Good, Clean Joke (or, at least a clean one)
Instructions for giving a cat a pill.