How To Solve Personnel Problems
By Terri Levine
In every company I have consulted or coached, there exists personnel
problems. Natural, you may say, and assume nothing can be done about it.
But I have found a pattern behind these personnel issues, and an easy,
effortless, and effective way to shift employees who are seen as
"problems" to become employees with whom it is a delight to work. It is
not necessary to "write off" problem employees when solutions are
available that will benefit them personally and the company for whom
they work.
The process of taking an employee who challenges the company or
leadership of the company and creating an employee who becomes a
dedicated and committed team member doesn’t involve re-training of tasks
or job, or threatening the employee, or doing a write-up and counseling
session of employee behavior. However, the practice I see most
frequently in organizations is to bring the employee in, talk to them
about what they are doing wrong and what isn’t working, and sometimes,
to scare them or threaten them with further action, or instill in them
the fear of losing their job. This doesn’t achieve anything positive,
and in fact, makes matters worse.
What typically happens is the person feels poorly about themselves, the
company, their employer or manager, and promptly begins to have more
negative feelings about work, and usually, doesn’t even want to show up
for work. The process results in negative energy and emotions and takes
the employee to a low level of morale, performance, and productivity,
which in turn, can adversely affect the morale and productivity of
everybody who has to work with them.
When I teach organizations to ask new questions of employees and to
teach employees a process of asking new questions of themselves, the
employees begin to feel more positive energy. They think better of
themselves and begin to think better thoughts about the company, their
leaders, and co-workers. When the energy shifts and becomes more
positive, the employee feels happier and is in a more positive frame of
mind to do their work and be a viable team member.
Here are some tips for creating an organizational culture that is more
positive and has less employee/personnel problems:
Ask the
question “What is working?” or “What is going RIGHT?”
frequently,
and teach employees to use this
question as their own self-talk.
Give
employees and leaders new questions to ask to get new answers.
If we ask ourselves the same questions,
we get the same answers. Instead of asking the same questions of
employees or of ourselves, we need to broaden the questions to let in
more creative ideas and solutions. We want to stop asking what is
going wrong and asking other questions that make us feel bad and
deplete our energy.
Co-creation.
When something is a problem or a
challenge and isn’t going quite right yet, we want to speak with
employees to co-create new ideas and solutions. We want employees to
give input and be part of the process by finding out what ideas,
resources, or solutions do THEY have to make things more right.
BELIEVE.
We have to fully believe employees want
and can do a great job. When something isn’t going right, we simply
have to figure out, along with them, what isn’t quite right YET – we
fully need to expect it will be – we’ll get whatever it is we believe.
ACT as IF.
We must act as if the employee IS
successful and treat them with respect and dignity and give them our
full confidence, even when their performance may be under par. Doing
so will enhance their self-esteem, and their belief and trust in us.
It’s very hard to perform poorly when somebody has such great faith
and belief in you and who openly respects and encourages you. It makes
you want to try harder and to make the necessary shifts.
Just making these 5 shifts creates employees who have more positive
energy and enthusiasm and changes the culture of a company to that of
belief, potential, and a what IS working frame of mind. It is a strategy
that costs nothing to implement and the benefits are long lasting and
far-reaching. It is simply a matter of building people up instead of
knocking them down.
