5 Strategies for Managing Unmanageable Employees

As an entrepreneur, you’ll encounter your share of employees.

During the hiring process, you’ll do your best to select candidates with solid experience, a great attitude, and references that support their abilities to perform in a work environment.

This article comes from Entrepreneur.

5 Strategies for Managing Unmanageable Employees

Unmanageable employees are something else again: They make it difficult for you to keep your team productive while retaining your image as a leader and the integrity of your original mission.

If you find yourself in such a situation, try one of these five strategies:

1. Set firm, written expectations.

Be clear in the early stages of your relationship that there are some things that aren’t negotiable. Setting expectations in advance of any issues ensure there is no surprise or confusion when those expectations are enforced.

2. Prioritize your requests.

This is the professional version of “picking your battles.” If you know your employee is going to resist at least some of your requests or directions, be clear about which ones are necessary and which ones are open to discussion.

3. Find alternatives.

Some items in your business are simply black and white: For example, if you meet an upcoming deadline, your client will be happy; and if you miss it, your client will leave.

Therefore, meeting the deadline is necessary. The way you achieve these ends, however, is more in the gray area.

4. Document improvement plans.

If your employee challenges every request or is otherwise impossible to manage in any meaningful way, document her known issues and together create an improvement plan.

5. Use peer pressure.

If the rest of your team members are perfectly manageable and easy to work with, use them as examples to help your problem employee assimilate.

Some employees are simply easier to manage than others, and some hard-to-manage employees are worth the extra effort.

If you choose to keep a more challenging employee on your team for the long haul, you may need a shift in perspective and a little extra patience to make things work.

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