How to Deal With Unreasonable Employees

How to deal with the HEART of an unreasonable employee's arguments...

Transcript:
Hi there, everybody, Cameron Morrissey here. Today I wanted to talk about unreasonable employees. Once you have enough employees, you're going come across a few of these individuals who you just have a hard time getting through what it is that you're doing. They have strange expectations, and they just don't seem to get it. I wanted to frame everything first and foremost. When we talk about unreasonable employees, realize that almost everybody is unreasonable on certain things. The example I use all the time is that every department in an organization always thinks that they have it the toughest, that everybody else in the organization has it easy. That's clearly unreasonable once you step back from it. The word itself gives us a hint as to what to do with these unreasonable employees. Un-reasonable. That means to don't have a reason behind it. Where you tackle not having a reason is with understanding. Unreasonable is really just meaning a lack of understanding. Once the person understands the situation, well, then they won't be unreasonable. That's really what you want to tackle is the lack of information that the person has and the lack of understanding that they have of the situation. Give them that understanding. What goes into the decision? What priorities affected how the decision played out and how you used that information in the decision? What you're going to do, one of the main keys when you're dealing with an unreasonable employee is give them the information, help them with an understanding, but transition immediately into action. Tell them what you're going to do. "We came up with this decision because of this reason and this reason, so we are going to do this now." That's how you handle it, and that's how you move on from that unreasonableness. Now I will mention there's another thing that factors into unreasonableness that doesn't have to do with a lack of understanding and that is when people have different agendas. You see this in politics all the time. I assure you most senators understand both sides of the issue. However, they have a different agenda that they're working towards. In the case your employee, that agenda is usually a selfish motivation, which all of us have to a certain extent. You want to phrase that understanding, that information, those priorities and talk about the WIIFM. "What's in it for me?" Phrase it in a way so that they see how your decision helps and improves their work life. When you do that, that often breaks through those barriers. Realize in all of these cases, this takes time. Understanding takes time. None of us got all of the concepts right away when we went through school. It's the same in our adult life as well. This does take time. It is an exercise for you in patience and persistence. Those are two very vital traits that you need to nurture in your leadership career. Tackle those unreasonable employees by tackling that understanding and the lack of information that they have. Thanks so much, everybody. Have a good one.