In the workplace, whether it is a fledgling new manager or a seasoned veteran, when taking over a new team, it is often a headache to face those disobedient and difficult to control "thorny" employees.
They may be arrogant and ignore the rules and regulations; or deep connections, which can drive a group of employees to confront management authority. How to properly handle such problems, not only maintain the stability of the team, but also stimulate the potential of employees, is an important skill that every leader must master.
In this article, we'll share five practical and proven strategies to help you successfully convert these "thorns" into the best players on your team.
Step 1: Isolate tactics and break alliances
When faced with a high-impact "thorn", the first task is to cut off the close network between him and other employees to prevent his influence from expanding. Isolation is not an encouragement of rumour-mongering or sowing discord, but rather through proper job adjustments and work arrangements.
For example, if you have obvious personal shortcomings, you can arrange for a colleague with whom you have a good relationship to supervise them, such as having a friend take care of attendance if you are late. This relationship between the supervised and the supervised is prone to contradictions, which naturally alienates them.
If the employee has no obvious flaws, he can be put in charge of supervising the work of other employees, which is more likely to lead to interpersonal conflict and isolate him in the team. Once his relationships are damaged, he will be more inclined to seek support and guidance from his superiors, and this is a good time to regain lost ground.
Step 2: Snub strategy to cool down
For those who think that they have strong business ability and are proud of the "thorns", it is not appropriate to hit them hard, but to adopt a temporary cold treatment method. Let them stay as they are and avoid direct head-on conflicts, and at the same time start to develop other employees who are less capable but have a positive attitude, and give more resources and support.
This has a dual effect: one is to show the "thorn" your strength and influence as a leader, create a psychological gap, and make them realize the importance of teamwork and leadership support; The second is to cultivate potential replacements for the team and weaken the dominant position of the "thorn head". Through this kind of cold treatment, some employees will gradually realize that even if they are capable, they need leaders to allocate resources to be more effective.
Step 3: Challenge the job transfer and frustrate its spirit
If the first two steps still fail to touch the "thorn in the head", then it is necessary to further dampen his spirit and prepare for a possible departure. At this time, you can deliberately arrange him to work in areas that he is not good at, such as letting him be sociable to do report analysis, and letting him be responsible for reception and other transactional work if he is savvy.
In response to the weaknesses exposed by him in his new position, he exerted pressure and criticized and corrected him in a timely manner, and entrusted him with some difficult tasks to complete, so that he could experience failures and setbacks. However, when doing this, leaders must ensure that the situation is under control and that they do not get themselves into trouble by over-pressing.
Step 4: Kindness and power are both gracious and helpful
Most "thorns" are difficult to discipline because they do have a certain ability and value. Therefore, after the first three strict measures, we will give them care and help in a timely manner, so as to achieve "grace and power". Invite them to dinner, comfort them with gentle words, and let them feel your tender side.
After the previous beating, the sweet dates at this moment will be particularly precious. They have experienced the process of isolation and frustration, and they can better appreciate your kindness and humanity, and there is a high probability that they will choose to sincerely follow you to work together.
Step 5: Identify contradictions and force decision-making
While most of the problems can be solved by the above four steps, there are still a very small number of stubborn "thorns". In this case, the leader needs to take the final killer action – to find out the contradictions. Choose the right time to make the conflict with the "thorn" public, and create a situation where the two sides are sharp and irreconcilable, forcing the company's top management to intervene and make a choice.
Of course, before taking this step, leaders must think deeply, confirm that their value in the company is irreplaceable, and be fully prepared, including isolating "thorns", reducing their business impact, and nurturing people. In this way, the company will often take the side of the leader and help solve the problem for the sake of the overall good.
In summary, in the face of the "thorny" employees in the team, leaders should not blindly rush forward, nor can they easily compromise, but should use wisdom and strategy to effectively transform these tricky employees through a series of means such as gradual isolation, moderate neglect, adjustment of positions, grace and power, and timely identification of contradictions, so as to enhance team cohesion and execution, and achieve organizational goals.