Dear Seniors,
I would like to share a case with you.. I am a team leader with a benevolent attitude. However one of my team members who has joined recently is quite pessimist and does not work as said. Anything and everything is disliked by him.. He wants to do what I do..I have no problem with that but why not do it step by step.. what and how shall I proceed.. I did speak to him but he utters nothing.. However actions speak louder..
Please suggest
Kind Regards
Monica
From India, Delhi
I would like to share a case with you.. I am a team leader with a benevolent attitude. However one of my team members who has joined recently is quite pessimist and does not work as said. Anything and everything is disliked by him.. He wants to do what I do..I have no problem with that but why not do it step by step.. what and how shall I proceed.. I did speak to him but he utters nothing.. However actions speak louder..
Please suggest
Kind Regards
Monica
From India, Delhi
You can have a trial and error approach.
1.Always ask questions regarding job which you may think he doesn't know
2.Find out all the faults he is making in his work.
3.Always keep him under you ie don't give him a chance to overtake you to your superiors.
Result may be
1.He will come to your control
2.He will quit the Job
From United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi
1.Always ask questions regarding job which you may think he doesn't know
2.Find out all the faults he is making in his work.
3.Always keep him under you ie don't give him a chance to overtake you to your superiors.
Result may be
1.He will come to your control
2.He will quit the Job
From United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi
Hi :
Suggest assign him some responsible task and communicate to him the results you are expecting. Preferably assign him a task in the area of his experience. Review his performance and then give him feedback - positive or areas of improvement.
The approach should not be to bring out his negative points but to bring out what is good in the employee hence the assignment should be around his experience. Anyhow deal with him in a professional manner. THough he maybe aiming to do work of your level but the point is that he has to prove himself efficient in the area of work for which he was hired. Please assign him an appropriate task and measure his capability.
Hope my inputs are helpful to you.
From India, Pune
95Suggest assign him some responsible task and communicate to him the results you are expecting. Preferably assign him a task in the area of his experience. Review his performance and then give him feedback - positive or areas of improvement.
The approach should not be to bring out his negative points but to bring out what is good in the employee hence the assignment should be around his experience. Anyhow deal with him in a professional manner. THough he maybe aiming to do work of your level but the point is that he has to prove himself efficient in the area of work for which he was hired. Please assign him an appropriate task and measure his capability.
Hope my inputs are helpful to you.
From India, Pune
Hi
Read your words "I am a team leader with a benevolent attitude". I seriously think that the change should start from you. How can you declare yourself as a team leader with xxxxxx attitude. When you are working in a team, you should be guide / facilitator / mentor for your team members and not to put yourself into a circle and start calling yourself as a team leader.
When you are expecting a change, the change should start from you. Please introspect and see if you need to change first. I strongly believe that to have an open communication, we should let go our ego and then start communicating. Have a discussion with your team member and understand him / her from his point of view and put forward your un-biased observations / suggestions to your team member. Give him / her goals and timelines to finish the goals.
Even after our positive approach the team member doesn't reciprocate and respond, think it is high time and reprimand the person with a disciplinary action
Regards
Kumar
From India, Hyderabad
Read your words "I am a team leader with a benevolent attitude". I seriously think that the change should start from you. How can you declare yourself as a team leader with xxxxxx attitude. When you are working in a team, you should be guide / facilitator / mentor for your team members and not to put yourself into a circle and start calling yourself as a team leader.
When you are expecting a change, the change should start from you. Please introspect and see if you need to change first. I strongly believe that to have an open communication, we should let go our ego and then start communicating. Have a discussion with your team member and understand him / her from his point of view and put forward your un-biased observations / suggestions to your team member. Give him / her goals and timelines to finish the goals.
Even after our positive approach the team member doesn't reciprocate and respond, think it is high time and reprimand the person with a disciplinary action
Regards
Kumar
From India, Hyderabad
Dear Kumar,
Please do not misunderstand my words.. I am not trying to boast of myself but just put a situation/ case.. personally or in a team he never comes out with anything.. it seems he has no problems neither has he any queries.. everything is understandable for this person..
From India, Delhi
Please do not misunderstand my words.. I am not trying to boast of myself but just put a situation/ case.. personally or in a team he never comes out with anything.. it seems he has no problems neither has he any queries.. everything is understandable for this person..
From India, Delhi
Hi Monica,
As humans, all of us are made differently. No two persons think alike or consider any problem in a similar manner.
Regarding the current issue you seem to be facing, it appears that the new team member may not have earlier worked in a cohesive team and thus may not be aware of the "how to" part of it. Since he is now a member of your team, you need to find ways to engage him in a regular dialogue. This conversation may be mainly work related, with bits of probing about his earlier job/ whatever he was doing. Try and get him to speak more, with more open-ended questions like " Your earlier job must be requiring a different set of skills....." and give him a chance to respond. If he hesitates to answer, try another question, again open-ended. This may make him divulge certain inputs which may be the cause of his present work behaviour.
Remember, communication is the key and shall always be. If you adopt a "Why should I bang my head" attitude, your team shall suffer and you may then resort to getting out yourself. Become a leader, think of newer ways to rope in this guy and make him feel part of the team.
Best of luck!!
Regards,
Ashok
From India, Pune
As humans, all of us are made differently. No two persons think alike or consider any problem in a similar manner.
Regarding the current issue you seem to be facing, it appears that the new team member may not have earlier worked in a cohesive team and thus may not be aware of the "how to" part of it. Since he is now a member of your team, you need to find ways to engage him in a regular dialogue. This conversation may be mainly work related, with bits of probing about his earlier job/ whatever he was doing. Try and get him to speak more, with more open-ended questions like " Your earlier job must be requiring a different set of skills....." and give him a chance to respond. If he hesitates to answer, try another question, again open-ended. This may make him divulge certain inputs which may be the cause of his present work behaviour.
Remember, communication is the key and shall always be. If you adopt a "Why should I bang my head" attitude, your team shall suffer and you may then resort to getting out yourself. Become a leader, think of newer ways to rope in this guy and make him feel part of the team.
Best of luck!!
Regards,
Ashok
From India, Pune
Dear
Call the gentle man to your table and offer him dinner outside. Find out your fault which might be serious in his eyes and you are ignoring it. During dinner ask him why he is behaving such. I think he will open his mouth and act accordingly. Cutting the head is not the solution of headache. Remember it is also a challenge for your carrier. You have to find out the way to win and if you win then you are great leader.
Regdrs
Masud
From Bangladesh, Dhaka
Call the gentle man to your table and offer him dinner outside. Find out your fault which might be serious in his eyes and you are ignoring it. During dinner ask him why he is behaving such. I think he will open his mouth and act accordingly. Cutting the head is not the solution of headache. Remember it is also a challenge for your carrier. You have to find out the way to win and if you win then you are great leader.
Regdrs
Masud
From Bangladesh, Dhaka
Hi Monica,
1. Don't allocate any other jobs until he finishes what you have already given.
2. tell him you would report to senior that he is lazy and finding no interest in the job.
you may see some result
From United Arab Emirates, Dubai
1. Don't allocate any other jobs until he finishes what you have already given.
2. tell him you would report to senior that he is lazy and finding no interest in the job.
you may see some result
From United Arab Emirates, Dubai
One extreme technique is of isolation. Completely ignore him for a few week. Dont give him any tasks, dont even look at him. Keep him guessing what might have happened. At the end of a week you can ask him why is he working here and what does he expect from you. Then ask him the question:
"If you were in my place and you had a team member who....(what you think and feel about his performance) what would be your options (not what he would do)? Would you ask him to leave the job ? How would you handle the situation?"
Make him answer the question. It is a self-reflective dissociation technique that is very effective with low performers, addicts, etc because they give you the solution to your problem and (if it is -ve like firing him or cutting his salary) you dont have to feel bad about it & he wont resent u for it because it was never your idea-it was his. This is a neat way of self-punishment and self-improvement.
Hope this helps
Avinash Tavares
Trainer & Life Coach
<link outdated-removed> ( Search On Cite | Search On Google )
From India, Pune
"If you were in my place and you had a team member who....(what you think and feel about his performance) what would be your options (not what he would do)? Would you ask him to leave the job ? How would you handle the situation?"
Make him answer the question. It is a self-reflective dissociation technique that is very effective with low performers, addicts, etc because they give you the solution to your problem and (if it is -ve like firing him or cutting his salary) you dont have to feel bad about it & he wont resent u for it because it was never your idea-it was his. This is a neat way of self-punishment and self-improvement.
Hope this helps
Avinash Tavares
Trainer & Life Coach
<link outdated-removed> ( Search On Cite | Search On Google )
From India, Pune
Dear Monica,
Prompted by you using the word ‘benevolent’ and based on my own life’s experience wherein I had to work with a team member almost like the person you refer to I am sharing my views...
Three years back when faced with a similar challenge, my initial thought process was that all mistakes are his, by nature he is a pessimistic person and I cannot do much about that.
On introspection I realised the mistake was not just his. I too had played my part.
Following were my realisations:
(a) I always projected only the ‘goody goody’ part of mine
(b) When he made mistakes, I pardoned him. At the same time, I did not take time to explain that such mistakes are not acceptable with clarity, conviction and rationale.
(c) By sharing with him the challenges I was facing with my boss, business partners etc., I contributed to his getting more cynical about things around him
(d) By sharing my vulnerable part with him I made him feel, “he is not a boss worthy following”
(e) By me being close to him, he was tending to lose respect for the ‘chair’ I was holding and started taking me for granted
It were these that made him get a upper hand over me and worse still make him feel, “I am better than Chandru and therefore let me aspire to do things he is doing”.
Based on these realisations, over a period of time I changed the situation to everyone’s favour. And the things I did were as follows:
(a) Stopped giving negative inputs to him about anyone or anything that happened in the company
(b) Limited my conversation / interactions about personal things
(c) Ensured access to information which he was earlier purview to directly, was now possible only through me
(d) Whenever any work was assigned to him (apart from the routine) I took extra time to set the details of what he should be doing, by when, with whose help, where all he needs to keep me in loop etc.
(e) This is not typical performance assessment but a detailed description at the execution level). Through all these I made him feel where exactly his limit ended.
(f) More than ever, I encouraged a lot of time with him but focused only on official matters
Through persistent, direct and indirect communication and action I made him feel that while thoroughly respected him as an individual, I was not going to accept his rebellious attitude for no reason.
Things did change but not completely. At least I ensured respect for the chair was retained.
More importantly, 2 years down the line, this employee is now with one of the top 3 IT companies globally, managing around 4000 employees under him. To date he calls me to update, seek guidance and generally ‘be in touch’.
Very recently a month back, he called me to say now he realizes how much trouble he gave to me. He appreciated my sense of patience, understanding and professionalism.
I am sure you too will be able to find your way out of the situation and make yourself experience a leadership quality in you, hitherto probably not known.
Wishing you all the very best…
Regards,
Chandru
From India, Madras
Prompted by you using the word ‘benevolent’ and based on my own life’s experience wherein I had to work with a team member almost like the person you refer to I am sharing my views...
Three years back when faced with a similar challenge, my initial thought process was that all mistakes are his, by nature he is a pessimistic person and I cannot do much about that.
On introspection I realised the mistake was not just his. I too had played my part.
Following were my realisations:
(a) I always projected only the ‘goody goody’ part of mine
(b) When he made mistakes, I pardoned him. At the same time, I did not take time to explain that such mistakes are not acceptable with clarity, conviction and rationale.
(c) By sharing with him the challenges I was facing with my boss, business partners etc., I contributed to his getting more cynical about things around him
(d) By sharing my vulnerable part with him I made him feel, “he is not a boss worthy following”
(e) By me being close to him, he was tending to lose respect for the ‘chair’ I was holding and started taking me for granted
It were these that made him get a upper hand over me and worse still make him feel, “I am better than Chandru and therefore let me aspire to do things he is doing”.
Based on these realisations, over a period of time I changed the situation to everyone’s favour. And the things I did were as follows:
(a) Stopped giving negative inputs to him about anyone or anything that happened in the company
(b) Limited my conversation / interactions about personal things
(c) Ensured access to information which he was earlier purview to directly, was now possible only through me
(d) Whenever any work was assigned to him (apart from the routine) I took extra time to set the details of what he should be doing, by when, with whose help, where all he needs to keep me in loop etc.
(e) This is not typical performance assessment but a detailed description at the execution level). Through all these I made him feel where exactly his limit ended.
(f) More than ever, I encouraged a lot of time with him but focused only on official matters
Through persistent, direct and indirect communication and action I made him feel that while thoroughly respected him as an individual, I was not going to accept his rebellious attitude for no reason.
Things did change but not completely. At least I ensured respect for the chair was retained.
More importantly, 2 years down the line, this employee is now with one of the top 3 IT companies globally, managing around 4000 employees under him. To date he calls me to update, seek guidance and generally ‘be in touch’.
Very recently a month back, he called me to say now he realizes how much trouble he gave to me. He appreciated my sense of patience, understanding and professionalism.
I am sure you too will be able to find your way out of the situation and make yourself experience a leadership quality in you, hitherto probably not known.
Wishing you all the very best…
Regards,
Chandru
From India, Madras
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