When There’s a Line Outside Your Door

Has this ever happened to you? You have a well functioning, highly productive team of great people who are doing everything you wanted them to do—well, I may be going a little far with describing a perfect work team but, you get the point.  Things are in good shape and you can get a bit of breathing room and maybe do some strategic thinking or even take a vacation.

Then, seemingly without warning, one of your employees isn’t getting along with the others on the team.  There is a line outside your door of unhappy employees who yesterday were quite satisfied with their working situation, but today are ready to bail on you and your organization.

Your first inclination is probably to shut your office door and hide but, tempting as that may be, you need a plan. The Manager’s Answer Book covers this topic with a question/answer discussion that walks you through a process of how to take corrective action that starts with counseling the employee using these steps:

1. “Point out the differences between what the employee is presently doing and what they should be doing.
2. Describe in specific terms the negative impact the employee’s behavior is having on them, others, and the organization.
3. Give the employee the opportunity to explain. There could be extenuating circumstances. However, don’t get caught up in defensive excuses.”

To get the rest of the steps to take, see page 60 of The Manager’s Answer Book which is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or your local independent bookseller.