|
When
a Good Employee is a Pain in the Neck
By
Dr. Carol Fleming
The
sales clerk with the raucous laugh
The investment
counselor that talks about her sex life
The art
director who argues with everybody
The programmer
who plays practical jokes
The executive
who is condescending to subordinates
The controller
that thinks out loud
The financial
analyst that can be heard a block away
The new
hire that wears patchouli oil
What
these people have in common is:
- They are
very good at their job
- They sincerely
want to keep their jobs
- The employers
would like to keep them in their jobs
EXCEPT...Their lack of professional behavior is driving people
nuts
This
is a partial listing of some of the people I have worked with this
past year who have been sent to me because of the way they conduct
themselves in the workplace. Why do these employers send them to
me?
-
Because it is very difficult to deal with some of these personal
issues in the workplace, for all the reasons known to most of
us: fear of insult, emotionalism, and lawsuit.
-
Because I have designed a program to develop Personal
Professionalism that can address these issues in an
objective and straightforward manner.
It
is not unusual for an employer to simply fire a person because of
their disagreeable habits or unprofessional conduct
in order to avoid the confrontation and interpersonal grief. This
happens a lot when the cost is not too high for the employer and
where the person is easily replaced.
This
article addresses those instances when the cost was serious and
a solution was preferable to a dismissal. The difficulty
in dealing with these issues is that they may be perceived as personal
issues that are unrelated to the job at hand. If we hired people
for circumscribed expertise or skill or labor alone, that may be
the case. But, it is NOT the case in the vast majority of businesses.
As long as they must work with other people, serve customers
and communicate with the public, they will need additional
skills and characteristics in order to be considered professional.
Expertise
is only one part of the professional package. This is the "stuff"
you know when you know your stuff (skills, knowledge).
Personal
characteristics and standards, e.g., courtesy, grooming,
service attitude, integrity, etc. the relationship attributes necessary
when working in the context of other people.
Communication
skills: listening, public speaking, clarity, tact, etc. This
also includes telephone, email and voicemail style and personal
appearance.
Who
teaches professionalism? That’s the problem for many of
our new hires if they have not grown up in an environment where
these particular behaviors are demonstrated and valued. If they
have not been explicitly instructed that personal behavior and
communication are necessary parts of the package, how are they
to know?
The
most common problems I am asked to deal with are:
-
Lack
of communication clarity
-
Articulation
is poor, speech is too fast or too soft, strong foreign accent,
language is poorly organized
-
Inappropriate
behavior in the workplace
-
Emotional
outbursts, hostile attitudes, personal telephone usage, etc.
-
Having
an "outside" person deal with these issues is a tremendous
relief to an employer.
 Top
How
to make it work
To
be effective, the employer needs to document the specific behaviors
that are troublesome. For example, if telephone usage
is the complaint, you need to tell me that she has phone conversations
at her desk that go on for quite some time, in Tagalog, that appear
to be quite personal and are really irritating her colleagues. Now
I have something more definite to work with. Bad attitude
or not approachable are not helpful terms; they describe
the effect on people, but not the actual behaviors that are offensive.
It
can feel like gossip to have to report these behaviors (she
wears open toes sandals with no sox, he always defends himself by
blaming someone else, she brings her family problems to work), but
since I am not at the scene, these explicit examples are absolutely
necessary to guide my work. Also, how else can you know if the person
is successful in trying to change? By the absence or diminution
of these identified irritating or inappropriate behaviors.
When
it becomes apparent that the individual is making a genuine effort
at compliance, give them appreciative feedback. If that doesn’t
seem suitable, at least make a note of the change in your records.
Also note positive comments made by others, e.g.
-
“I
made that sales call with Darlene, and she was just fine.”
-
“I noticed that Bob sat through the meeting and never interrupted
or challenged anybody.”
-
“I
listened to Mary on the phone this morning and there was no
problem understanding her speech.”
I have had employers who did not give this kind of feedback for
fear that the individual would stop trying. While this may happen
sometime, I personally have not had this experience. It is more
likely that the person will try even harder.
Unpleasant
behaviors are easily noted. When they disappear, they are usually
forgotten, much like removing a thorn from your foot. This underlines
the importance of remembering the problems after they’re gone,
so to speak. So you can express appreciation for the effort.
What appears to be a small thing to someone else may well represent
a huge effort for the person in question.
Finally,
I would ask you to be patient. The person who is sent to me has
to go through a series of realizations and acceptance for this process
to work. They need to know that:
Their behavior
change is important to their future success -
They
really are perceived as worthwhile employees
The employer
is trying to help them keep their job/promotion Their efforts
will result in increased personal professionalism that will pay
off in any job.
The
individual will probably have some immediate improvement but may
backslide as time goes by. This is entirely normal. Changing
personal habits and ways of responding to the world is not easy.
I would appreciate being notified of the relapse because it really
helps me in the remedial effort. I usually check in with the referral
source to monitor improvement on the job once a month. Again, specifics
help me design the right approach in helping the individual develop
a more professional presence on the job.
See
previous articles Guidelines
for Professionalism, and The
Secrets of Professional Impact. On my website: www.speechtraining.com
Copyright
© 2003 Dr. Carol Fleming. All Rights Reserved.
Permission to reprint with author and website acknowledgement. Contact
us
today to discuss how our workshops, coaching and training products
can improve your Personal Professionalism and Communication
Impact.
Top
|
