How to motivate a problem employee?

This is a question we are regularly asked. If an employee of yours is messing up or just been difficult we suggest that you talk about their exceptions – when they did the job well or handled a difficult customer in a professional manner. We recommend that you praise the exceptions and ask them to do whatever worked to once again create those exceptions again. Remember that specific behaviours are the cause of the problem. Identify the behaviours that need to change. And as we always recommend to our clients say, “focus on the behavior and not the person”.

Good question! When we are asked this question by a client we immediately redirect the question back and ask our client what they think is a leader’s most important job? Sometimes there is an awkward silence while our client thinks and often the answer is creating a vision or problem solving. The answer is actually this, leadership is all about communication.

The reason for this that leadership is focused on building competence and responsibility in others, leadership then is all about open communication.

As a leader you need to think about and work on open communication every single day. Communication has to be top-of-your mind and you need to ensure that it is two-way communication. Communication is about creating understanding and if you not listening to what your staff has to say then you’re not communicating. Simple as that!

Recognition is considered to be amongst the top 3 motivators for people. For this reason you need to use recognition as an integral part of your inspirational leadership.

We suggest that recognition be given as frequently as possible. This is an essential aspect of situational leadership. Recognition should be specific, relevant and consistent.

Use recognition as an opportunity to communicate what is important for you from a behavioural perspective and related back to your company values. Align your recognition in support of your team or company vision.

We also suggest that you give recognition as often as possible in front of all staff. This creates team spirit and communicates what is important to you form a behavioural perspective.

‘Research indicates that employees have three prime needs: Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company.’ Zig Ziglar