Managing multiple personalities

One of the biggest tasks of a true leader is to learn how to manage their employees. When you are dealing with difficult employees, it can be a bit of a hassle as it can frustrate you and can frustrate your other employees. Anyone that is a manager or a team lead of a company must be able to manage difficult employees as they are looked to as the person in control and if you cannot control your staff, you are seen as incompetent. A strong employee management program will lead to happier employees and they will have a desire to continue working for a company that is well-organized and managed appropriately.

Core Values
To help manage your employees, assess your own core values. What drives you to be a good person and can you send out that subliminal message through your actions? As people see how you work, it's easier for them to have an example as to what they need to follow. If you come in late and take long lunches and multiple vacations, why are you shocked that you have employees that have issues with being on time and taking long lunches?

Take Action
An employee with a sour attitude will impact their co-workers and they will find it's hard to come into work and to try and put forth a greater effort toward their job. If you see an employee that is wearing down on others, you need to call them into your office and talk to them about their behavior. By putting a stop to it early on, you will have a much easier time uplifting the work environment for the rest of your employees. Sometimes the bad attitudes are caused from simple things that you do control like small workloads that do not keep them interested and stimulated. Sometimes these employees can feel a lot of pressure from you to work more than is necessary and they may feel inadequate.

Document everything
Before you can fire a person, you must be able to record everything they are doing that is causing you to have concerns with them. Document when they are not coming into work on time or if they are taking long coffee breaks and other things. Documentation helps you to have proof of the bad behavior so the employee is unable to dispute it when you call them into the office to talk about it. As you talk to the employee about their lazy behavior, bring up some things that may help them overcome this obstacle such as goals that will keep them motivated or incentives that can help. If an employee is motivated, they will work harder and it can help you to eliminate some of the bad behaviors.

Control your attitude
When you have an employee that gets upset quickly, how can you manage the angry employee? You will need to watch your temper and keep your attitude in check as you can make the entire situation worse. It helps to document everything with this employee as well but the most important thing to do is to remain calm at all times. You need to identify why this employee may be so upset and seek out ways in which you can eliminate the problems before they do become worse and start infecting the rest of your staff.

Rules
Always offer documentation of your company's rules to your employees. You need to be able to prove that you have shown them that there will be consequences for their behaviors and the actions they are taking.

If you give a difficult employee a second chance, you need to make sure that you are following up with them and that you are still monitoring them. As you follow up with them. You will be able to prevent future problems from happening and to also help keep your employees happy.