A "difficult employee" experience wreaks havoc on team morale and the manager's psyche. For some managers, this experience is so painful, it prompts them to redirect in their careers. For others--survivors, they find different ways to turn the negative experience into improved leadership performance in the future. Here are four approaches of leaders who survived and thrived following a toxic employee situation:
As managers, we tend to tolerate certain employees who straddle that toxic boundary, in large part, because we can rationalize their aberrant behaviors in the context of what they do well. This is a mistake with tremendous costs to the organization, team and to your own credibility as a leader.
There are those that are eager to learn, inquisitive, participative and genuinely excited to hear something that challenges their pre-conceived ideas or that expands their thinking. These Active Learners bring energy to the situation and they raise the quality of the engagement for everyone involved. Unfortunately, it’s common in many settings to meet the alter egos of the Active Learner. They come in several shapes and sizes, ranging from Aggressive Resisters to Apathetic Loafers. What's a manager, educator or facilitator to do?
