Next-level management

This month, I’ve been taking some management training courses by SHRM (good stuff, btw). As a follow-up to that training, I’m in a group of managers who are talking about what we learned and how to apply it.

During one of our discussions, we came to the topic of [employees who are manageable] (vs the opposite). Like, what do you do with a difficult/problem employee?

I can tell you: this is a next-level management skill. 301 or 401 level, minimum. Because as a human-being, you might not be good at conflict resolution, but as a manager, your criteria for success is more narrow. Sure, there are playbooks for how to deal with it, but handling something like this is only easy if you do it poorly.

For comparison, let’s say maybe if you had some conflict with your family; you can’t just fire them or dock their pay. You might have no-choice but to just live-with that mess, and try to cope. However at work, you might have full boss-mode power. That might seem easy. Just pull the plug and walk away. Easy.

With great power comes great responsibility (thx spider man). Firing a difficult employee is a cheap solution and ultimately a lose-lose, long-term. It won’t improve this delinquent colleague (or the next, or the next) and it won’t help you expand your play-book or improve your people skills.

Recognizing a “learning moment”, as such, is a valuable skill for a manager, but knowing what to do, and delivering the right remedy, is pure gold. It is one of the highest achievements that a manager/leader could reach and (for some people) might be your Everest. Nonetheless, it is something that you should be preparing-for and something you can be training-for, so when that day arrives, you are ready, and you hit-your-marks and you seize the day.