How to Deal with 13 Types of Talented but Difficult Employees (Part 2)

7. The Super Competitor

However the situation turns out to be, whoever gets hurt in process, the super competitor won’t give up until he is convinced that he has won and someone else has lost. He is truly a brilliant employee when it comes to work alone though, he will be a loser if playing the team work mode.

⇒ Management strategy: Direct this employee type’s focus to having the whole team win rather than just himself. One hint here is to pay him a team achievement bonus and never on personal accomplishment.

8. The Drama Queen

She/ he can automatically turn everything into a fit of temper, filled with pique, offence and a buck of other French emotions. She/ he seems draw energy from drama while draining her/ his energy from everyone else.

⇒ Management strategy: One employment management technique that you can apply is to set up the boundaries for the behaviour that you won’t put up with. Eject those people from any meeting that their behaviour becomes obstructive. Plus, never ask the drama queen how she is feeling, and just keep your conversations with her as professional as possible.

9. The Procrastinator

Procrastinators (also, postponer) say yes to the projects but don’t follow through. When deadlines are around the corner, they can be found from nowhere, even through email. When the work is eventually turned in often by others that have covered for them, they will go on a mini vacation to “recover from the stress”.

⇒ Management strategy:: Unluckily, this kind of employee can be tamed just with a little good old fashioned labor management. Define frequent, even daily milestones, and point out consequences if they miss one or fail to report they missed it.

10. The Creative Genius

He is a genius in his own mind. He is always bragging about fantastic stuff he accomplished in the past, and his equally fantastic plans for the future. Yet, it seems that he seldom actually does anything today.

⇒ Management strategy:: First, don’t forget to give him some lip service about his greatness. Then bring him down to earth by splitting a project into chunks and getting him to consult on each of the chunk.

11. The Panic Button

Some employees truly shine in crisis times. Others are really not so much. They remain calm by day and week, but then when an issue has been at its inescapable reach, they run around like a beheaded chicken.

⇒ Management strategy: Develop an early warning system for fewer surprises. Also, switch the regular coffee to the decaffeinated coffee on the day of the bad news.

12. The Network Butterfly

This type of worker is convinced that remaining online all the day cementing relationships with all your customers is just productive. Indeed, he’s just adding to the daily chatter that is an essential part of social network.

⇒ Management strategy:: Assigning measurable goals can be the solution here. The goals can be a certain number of quality sales leads they need to create by week.

13. The Volcano

Those persons are such a hot temper. They can’t hide what they feel inside but explode it to outside whenever things that fail to go the way they think they should. They would scream at the meeting, yell into the phone and annoy you. Though they may apologize later, the team ends up continually walking on eggs.

⇒ Management strategy:: Boost your own intensity; otherwise, you will not be heard. And then refuse to tolerate such an unprofessional behaviour. If necessary, go out the room until they are cooled down.