Handling Difficult People | For Small Business Employers and Managers

As a small business owner, you wear many "different hats" from strategic planner to bookkeeper. However one area may owners aren't prepared for is managing people. Although employees allow you to get more work done, they create a whole new series of problems from hiring issues to worker's compensation. And there is no way to tell if the people you hire today are going to be a good fit for your company. At a certain point, you might find you need a crash course in handling difficult people.

Many conflicts can arise between small business owners and their workers. These problems can range from salary disagreements to performance problems. A conflict with one of your employees, for example, can cost you a valuable client because he or she is misrepresenting you and your company. On the other hand, one of your workers may have attendance issues or may refuse to perform certain necessary tasks.

Whatever the issue, difficult employees all have one thing in common. They will negatively impact your business.

So as a business owner, you must accept the realities of handling difficult people. Here are a few tips that will help you deal with such individuals.

* Find out what makes your employee so frustrated or unhappy. Start a formal conversation with your worker. Explore why your employee has inappropriate behavior. Are they taking on more responsibility than they can handle? Do they lack the training to perform certain tasks? Do they have issues outside the workplace that are affecting their performance? Take the time to meet with your employee to get insight about their situation. Be objective and professional.

* If your employee's problems are work related, address their needs within reason. This is a two-way street. You try to accommodate their needs within the boundaries of your business. In return, you should give the worker some expectations to meet. This involves having a professional, but honest discussion with this individual. Give them examples of their problem behavior. Offer alternate ways of acting so your employee may learn how you'd prefer he or she handle similar circumstance going forward. Set some goals and objectives.

* Meet regularly with the employee and revisit the issues. Sometimes just monitoring the situation is enough to get the worker to improve. This is a good way of not only handling difficult employees but of managing all of your people. Using this technique, you open communications with your employees and they understand what you and the business expect.

* Take corrective action. If a difficult employee refuses to improve, then you must begin progressive discipline. Eventually this may lead to firing the problem employee. Therefore make sure you follow your business policies, document your corrective actions and follow proper termination procedures.

Many a business owners have fired an employee believing they have "at-will" protection, only to discover later they are at the losing end of a wrongful termination law suit. And a difficult person in the workforce is more likely to seek retribution after a firing. You can simply avoid this problem by following fair and legal termination procedures.