Dealing With Difficult Employees: A Manager’s Practical Framework

What Causes Difficult Employee Behaviour?

Key Terms

Difficult Employee Behaviour

Actions or patterns by an employee that persistently obstruct team performance, create conflict, or violate expected conduct standards — including disruptive communication, resistance to direction, negativity, poor performance, or interpersonal aggression. Critically, most difficult behaviour has an underlying cause that, when properly diagnosed, significantly changes the appropriate management response.

A Step-by-Step Framework for Managers

1. ►Observe specifically — Document precise behaviours with dates and impact. Avoid labelling (“difficult”); describe the observable action.
2. ►Have a private conversation early — Address behaviour at the first significant instance, not after it has become a pattern. Early intervention is cheaper and more effective.
3. ►Listen before directing — Ask what is going on from their perspective. What the manager sees is the symptom; the cause may be invisible from the outside.
4. ►Set clear expectations — State specifically what behaviour is required and what the consequence of non-improvement will be. Ambiguity protects no one.
5. ►Support change — Provide whatever coaching, training, or structural change is needed to make improvement achievable.
6. ►Follow through — If behaviour does not improve after genuine support, follow the formal performance or conduct process without delay. Failing to do so signals that standards are optional.

Related People Management Resources

• ►Providing Great Feedback: Difficult Conversations Done Well
• ►Emotional Intelligence: Managing Your Own Response
• ►Motivation Theories: Understanding What Drives Behaviour
• ►Situational Leadership: Adapting to the Individual

The following section contains our original guide to dealing with difficult employees.

They are everywhere. You just cannot avoid them! No matter the job or environment, you will always meet them, so dealing with difficult employees is essential in order to achieve success.

This is a skill I personally had to learn. For many years when I had been dealing with difficult employees, I would think, “here we go again!” or “Why can’t they just do what they are told?”

A few years later and a little more educated and wiser, I learned to adopt (in the majority of cases) a different viewpoint to the situation. The truth is, most people don’t deliberately come to work to be a pain and fall out with other people. They don’t deliberately go out of their way to shun responsibility or not complete their tasks, or turn up late, or never get involved, and so on.

Normally, you will find that difficult people are only difficult because there is a reason for it. You may not be able to see it, but there is always a reason. Dealing with difficult employees means you must first understand that person’s trigger – what makes them well, rather difficult? Get to the root of this and you are now in a position to overcome the problem.

Triggers can come from a number of reasons, which can be (but not exclusive to):

• ►The person doesn’t like a new method of working and is set in their ways
• ►They don’t understand what it is you are asking from them
• ►They feel threatened and anxious – see the change curve
• ►They feel demotivated for a number of reasons – see Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs
• ►Perhaps they are feeling held back by the environment around them

Tips to Help in Dealing With Difficult Employees

The following are tips to help you in dealing with difficult employees and get to the root cause or trigger to their poor performance or behaviour:

Discuss the situation: Discuss the problem with the employee. It is important that you act swiftly and, as they say, nip it in the bud. Failing to do so will only manifest the problem even more and the danger is that the employee may become worse, dragging other members of the team down with them.

I know, most people do not like managing conflict, however, this is a key requisite of any leader and acting swiftly is the only way to keep control of the team and individuals.

Remain Calm: It is essential, that your demeanour is calm and collected and that you act on data and not opinions. Your main task is to find the problem, so ask open questions in an environment that isn’t threatening. If there is an allegation, go and research and get an understanding of what happened and so on. Most of all, be totally prepared for the discussion, using facts and events as a matter of course, and be firm.

Take the emotions out of the Discussion: Chances are, that if you are having a discussion about the very problem of the employee, he/she may become heated. One of the primary rules is to take emotions out of the discussion. How do you do this? Act on data and be specific with times and events, don’t debate people’s opinions of them and use ‘I’ more than ‘you’. E.G. I require my team to start on time, rather than “you are late all the time”; or “I need my team to adopt these new skills because”, rather than “you must do this because.”

Be clear as to your intentions: Often people become fiery and obstinate because of a failing elsewhere by management. On too many occasions, this failure normally stems from poor communication. Typical issues can come from:

• ►Not understanding their role because management haven’t really explained it properly
• ►Not really understanding the goal of a project or change initiative
• ►Feeling like they are being kept in the dark on basic information

When dealing with difficult employees, one of the key requirements is to gain rapport with employees and the only real way to do that is to gain respect and trust. The only way to do this is to be open and honest, whereby communication is critical. Why not spend time to have five minute daily start up meetings and weekly overviews, giving the team a chance to talk, learn, debate and ask questions. Regular one to one reviews is also critical, giving individuals a further chance to ask for guidance and clarification, but to also gauge key information.

This can also be the case during your discussion with the employee – Your remit is not to confront but to work with the employee to remove the barrier that is affecting you both. Be honest and open in your discussion and try to lead the employee to a resolution, whilst explaining what your intentions are. If people see honesty they then start becoming more trustworthy of you and your rapport builds.

Summarise points – Often what we have said, and our interpretation of it is totally different to what a recipient has understood it to be. Summarising points of discussion is critical in order to understand that both parties are on the same hymn sheet, so to speak.

Lastly – Escalate

When all else fails, escalate to your manager. This must be considered as the last resort, but if all your actions have failed and the employee is still not willing to meet in the middle, then something has to be done to resolve this. Often, an escalation to your line manager may be a simple solution, as in this instance, you get support, disciplinary advice and also that your line manager may discuss the problem directly with the individual.

Sometimes, the only way to get someone moving is through the top-down approach. Be careful not to exercise this option all the time as you wouldn’t want your manager to think that you are incapable of handling your own problems.

In situations where you are embarking on a change project and in a last resort, it may be worth removing the individual from that process or area where you are implementing change, and moving them elsewhere, where they will not have such a negative effect.

Any decision must be made with advice and thought out thoroughly as the effects of poor decisions may be tenfold.

In Summary

Dealing with difficult employees needs time, patience and resilience. You may feel that you are constantly beating your head against a wall, but refrain from being a defeatist and resist the questions of “why me?” or “why can’t he just do as I say?”

Humans are dynamic creatures. You must understand why they are resisting your requests. Take a little time to work out the trigger, and then endeavour to try to remove that issue.

During the process, look at typical models to help understand the situation, like:

• ► ADKAR – Here, you can help deliver change through a well trusted change program.
• ► Change Management process – understand the general steps to lead people through a transition.
• ► Using Motivation theories to improve morale

Be patient, direct, think about the dynamics of humans and try to act on data!