5 Tough Situations You’ll Eventually Face When Managing PeoplePublished: Jun 19, 2018 Last Updated: Aug 6, 2019 by Larry Alton
As a business owner, managing people is by far the toughest responsibility of all. Every person is different, unpredictable, and motivated by a unique set of factors. And while good hiring practices will mean smooth sailing most of the time, every business owner will eventually encounter tough situations. Knowing how to respond will help you avoid making costly mistakes.Be Prepared for These 5 Management SituationsBetween 2003 and 2013, RainmakerThinking, Inc. interviewed 37,419 managers from 891 different organizations and asked them a simple question: “What is the hardest thing for you about managing people?”Instead of presenting multiple choice answers, which often waters down responses, they actually collected verbatim responses to the open-ended query. While there were thousands of unique answers, 87% of the responses fell into one of 10 common challenge categories. They are as follows:Not enough time (or too many people to manage) – 24 percentGiving negative feedback – 19 percentDifferent personalities – 6 percentInterpersonal conflict – 6 percentBalancing being the boss with being a friend – 6 percentEmployees with bad attitudes – 5 percentDealing with pressure and shifting priorities from my own boss – 5 percentCumbersome and lengthy firing process – 5 percentInsufficient authority and discretion to reward high performers– 4 percentManaging people in remote locations – 4 percentIn other words, the management challenges you’re facing in your own business probably aren’t unique. You’re dealing with the same points of friction as business owners all over the world. And while this may not make things any easier on you, it’s at least encouraging. It also means there’s a lot of great advice and helpful resources out there to guide you along.Keeping the groups above in mind, there are specific situations within these categories you’ll eventually face when managing people. By preparing yourself for them in advance, you can develop a framework for how they’ll be handled in your organization.Hardest Parts of Being a ManagerHere are five specific situations to be ready for:
1. Firing an Underperforming EmployeeManagers of large and small companies alike rank firing employees as one of the most difficult responsibilities they have. In fact, some major corporations actually hire termination companies to come in and handle this undesirable process for them. But if you’re going to be a good manager, you have to learn how to fire an employee in a firm, appropriate manner.“The first and most important step in the firing process is to make sure your employee can see the train coming, long before it arrives,” says Tye Deines, the Director of Human Resources for one of the country’s largest human service organizations. “This is part of your job supervising your team. If your staff isn’t meeting your expectations, it’s your responsibility to let them know immediately—not months later.”If you’ve done a good job providing expectations, correcting employees when they don’t meet these expectations, and giving them opportunities to regain your trust, then the termination process becomes much easier.
It’s also important that you use dishonest behavior as a teaching opportunity. Employees learn through experience and they’re much less likely to repeat the behavior of a coworker if they’ve seen the consequences played out in real time.5. Persuading an Employee to StayWhile we’ve discussed the challenge of firing an employee, the opposite is true as well. It’s sometimes even more difficult to hang on to an employee who is looking to accept a position with another company.In most cases, employees leave for one of the following reasons:More moneyBetter benefitsGreater responsibilitiesCareer change/pivotRelocating to a new cityWhile you can’t do much if an employee wants to switch careers, you have some room for negotiation when it comes to money, benefits, and responsibilities. You may even have some options when it comes to relocation.