How To Manage The Unmanageable.

Due to many interpersonal, generational, or behavioral elements — you will always bump into the troubled employee. How do you manage them?

Many times during my 20+ years of corporate management, I ran into certain team members who just didn't play by my rules. This is not a rare situation in business and there are three clear outcomes:

• You ultimately fire them. (bad)

• You understand how they 'operate' and then you integrate their style into your processes. (better)

• You teach them how to work within your management structure. (best)

Of course the first is the last resort, but I've had to do this on a number of occasions — usually do to the associate's disinterest of their position. In the end, it's better for the both of us.

The second outcome, being flexible, is a better outcome, but causes you to modify your management, their communication, work habits, delivery for each of your team members. That's okay when you have 1-2 direct reports, but it becomes unmanageable when you have 5-7.  Now some will disagree with me (and I encourage your comments!) - and you might manage your team this way presently - but the personalized nature of this management style will cause you to spend more hours than necessary trying to understand, manage, and navigate each personality.

So, the third — have them work within your management style is the best. Why? They ascribe to your schedule, your input/output of communication, and they align with your measures of interaction with their teams. Another side benefit is that they learn another management method that might be better than their own, developing a flexible work style that will benefit them for their entire career.

One way I got my team to report to me is to use this basic template each time we had a status meeting:

1. What did I accomplish?

2. What is planned for next week?

3. Long Term Projects (with deadline dates)

4. Concerns & Issues (with solutions)

If each team member filled this out, I could immediately see what they got accomplished, what they will be working on, what is on the horizon, and what obstacles they are running into. The only two rules — they have to keep it to one page and the bulleted items underneath each area must be short phrases - not run-on sentences. This allowed me to review quickly and make comments. Our meetings were quick, focused and powerful.

In addition, they then review their week and slowly become more delivery focused. No more run-on projects without an end date. At the end of the year, it also makes their review soooo easy - they just review a summary of their sheets.

There are three types of people in this world.

Those who make things happen.Those who watch things happen. Those who wonder what happened.

Which one will you be today?

We use the Robert Langdon/Sophie Neveu characters from Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code as examples with many of our clients. What are they like?

• Smart - top of their professions.

• Heroic - will do what has to be done.

• Action-oriented - when confronted with a problem/obstacle, they take action.

• Focused - thinks deeply about the topic at hand.

• Clever - thinks outside of the box.

• Communicative - takes charge, but not in an offensive way.

We can go on and on. Bottom line, these two characters present personas that one can use to take action, rather than retreat and let someone else take a chance. It might sound funny or ridiculous - but next time you find yourself in an uncomfortable situation, one where you are forced to step out of your comfort zone - pick a character - and focus on their strengths, make them yours, and you will initiate action immediately.

Focus on your career, not work.

highway1

Sounds a little contradictory, doesn't it? Aren't you supposed to work at work? Doesn't your career progress based on your work? Yes and No. Of course you are supposed to work at work. That's how you get things done. Unfortunately, most executives spend too much time working and not enough time on their career. What do I mean by career? Here are some examples:

• What is your 30/60/90 day plan for your career?

• Who do you know? Who do you need to know, meet and develop a relationship?

• Are the projects/initiatives you manage important/critical to your company? Which ones are?

• How is your company doing? How are your competitors doing?

• Should you stay or go to another company?

Most of the time, we get so caught up in the meetings, the emails, the reviews, and the interpersonal crises, that we lose our long-term vision. Worst-case, after 3-5 years, you are still doing the same-old-stuff, working the same old projects, with the same old people - and you are ripe for a layoff.

Your job is to look at your career through career glasses - monitor and measure where you've been, where you are, and where you're going. Regularly measure what have you accomplished, what are you doing right now, and what you're future prospects might be. Ask yourself the bulleted items above — you'll find that you will have direction, defined activities, and clear goals.

When you are on a trip (that's really what your career is - a loooong trip with regular stops), you need to always know where you are going to end up. If you don't, then it's just a ride — and you don't want to just coast through life.