Q & A Table of Contents
This Hot Dog Burns Me Up
From: Al, Chicago, Illinois
Question: I need some negotiation advice about managing an over-aggressive employee.
He is so eager to prove that he can do all of the team activities that he constantly tries to take and work on other team members projects. This makes the other team members angry, because these projects are their responsibility to complete and the projects relate to their customers.
As it happened - one of the projects done by this over-eager employee was not done correctly, causing issues for the another employee’s customer. The customer complained back to the representative who they thought was handling their business, saying that this team member was responsible - not the over-eager one who really did the work. To the customer their representative is their key point of contact, not the eager one who did the work.
Now I have two unhappy employees. One is the representative who was responsible for that customer, but didn't do the work, and got yelled at by the customer. The other one did do the work -- but incorrectly -- who is upset that it was done wrong because nobody told him he was doing it wrong.
What's a manager to do to get the team back on track?
Response: The ultimate responsibility rests with the supervisor of these two employees — and it sounds as if that’s you. In a sense you are lucky that a crisis has arisen, because that gives you a point of entry into the situation.
You need to choose what kind of meeting(s) to have:
- one on one with each of the two employees
- a meeting involving yourself and the two employees
- or a more general meeting involving the two employees in the situation you described — and other members of the team who might also be affected.
Your first job is to assess the interests of the various stakeholders in the situation: yourself, each of your employees, higher-level folks in your organization, the customer who was directly involved, and other customers who might face similar problems. Figuring out what results you want and why you want them may be appear to be a simple job. However you have to be careful not to confuse the desired results with a single answer (‘my way or the highway’) that might make it difficult for you to be open to other ideas that may come from other folks.
Your own interests certainly include providing good service to customers, making sure your subordinates do their jobs without falling over each other, and reaffirming your authority as a manager. If you think in these terms about other stakeholders, that should help you develop a sense of what information you need to reach a wise agreement and it should help you develop a strategy for going forward.
Clearly you need to meet with the over-eager employee to find out what his interests are — and how he thinks his behavior is serving those interests. As you talk with him you need to have a sense of what outcome will be best for the organization, yourself, your other subordinates — and Mr. Over-eager. Then, as you listen to him, you will be able to make proposals for changes in his behavior that are responsive to what he has revealed about his interests. If he senses that you have been listening, taking him seriously, you have a better chance of influencing him.
As you develop your assumptions about the interests of other members of the team, you need to ask them questions that will yield a reality-check on the assumptions you’ve made. Whether to ask them questions individually or in a group meeting is a decision you have to make by yourself. However, when you do ask questions, make them open-ended. A ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer won’t tell you very much.
One of the lessons of this situation could be that, when you see a problem brewing, you shouldn’t wait for it to turn into a crisis. Think of the differing benefits of crisis resolution, crisis management, . . . and crisis prevention.
It may be difficult to tell an employee that his over-eager way of working is risky, annoying, or otherwise unacceptable. But if you approach that tough task by asking questions rather than giving a set of orders, the interchange is likely to be more amiable and you are more likely to reach an agreement to which each party is committed — which is the measure of any successful negotiation.
Good luck,
Steve
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