Effective Strategies for Managing a Difficult Employee In The Workplace
- Job Manikkam
- Mar 21, 2025
- 4 min read
Handling a difficult employee at the workplace is absolutely crucial because if not handled correctly it will impact team morale and cause unnecessary conflict. Furthermore it can cause disruption to the work flow especially if the said individual is not performing to the expected standard.
The term difficult employee can be applied to a person who is resistant to authority, has a lot of negativity to the people around them or does not want to corporate with others or lacks cooperation. A manager needs to have the proper skills to be able to handle such individuals.
Without the proper skills, especially communication skills, conflict management skills, the manager can cause the individual to become even more resistant. The more skillful the manager is, the more easier he or she will be able to handle difficult employees.
In this article I am to share with you effective strategies for managing a difficult employee. These strategies are basically from an overall point of view. Please do your own due diligence to see whether if it is applicable to a situation or not.
One Of The Effective Strategies in Managing A Difficult Employee is Having The Right Mindset
Handling a difficult employee can be very challenging at times especially if they are resistant to authority. As a manager your mindset is important because how you approach that challenge will determine whether you can handle them or not and to come up with the right solution.
Your mindset should be fixed on solutions rather than seeing the employee to be a pain in the neck or a problem that you need to fix. Every challenging moment whether be it at the workplace or in life generally gives us an opportunity to learn and grow.
As you are dealing with a difficult employee look at it as an opportunity to develop your skills and also for you to learn to become a better manager. At the same time it helps you to overcome any breakdown that had occurred to cause this to happen and also for you to communicate your expectations in a way that the employee fully understands.
Don’t let a temporary situation cause you to make a premature decision until and unless you have tried everything and the employee is just not wanting to change. Often you find that if you take the right approach, usually the difficult employe is willing to change their behavior because their livelihood is at stake.
One Of The Effective Strategies in Managing A Difficult Employee is Understanding Their Communication Style
In Neuro Linguistic Programming we are taught that each one of us have a preferred communication style. We usually asses people’s eye movement as they are talking to us to understand what is their preferred communication style.
There are many different communication styles and profiling system that is available on the marketplace. Pick one that you prefer and like to use and ask your teams member to follow that system to make sure that there is effective communication happening in the workplace.
Of course this requires training and practice so that effective communication can take place at work. In my communication skill training, I train participants with the principles and techniques that they can use on a daily basis.
When you communicate to handle a difficult employee, you need to communicate effectively, here are some ways that you can do that;
Use assertive body language
Use proper words, avoid using harsh or negative words
Remain calm and collected as you speak
Ensure your tone of voice is polite
Another way is to usually ask them to repeat what has been said to them to make sure that they heard it correctly. Secondly, you need to have good active listening skills to make sure that they feel heard and valued because often it’s just one way communication.
To be able to understand their viewpoint you must learn to let go of any preconceived ideas about a particular situation, letting go of any tendency to judge others and to learn to have an open view point as the employee is sharing their struggles and challenges.
Your preconceived ideas and judgements can come in the way of really understanding why the employee is being difficult or what is it that is causing them to be such. Asking the right questions will help you to get the right information and that in turn will help you to decide what you need to do next.
One Of The Effective Strategies in Managing A Difficult Employee is Understanding The Root Cause Of It
A lot of times, the behavior of being difficult originates from a number of reasons. As a manager actively practicing good communication skills, you will be able to figure out, what are the causes for the employee to behave in such a way.
Usually it could be from the stress that they are experiencing in their personal life, for an example marital problems, family problems, financial stress and so on. We need to realize that everyone has a battle that they are facing in their life and we need to help them to realize that it is an opportunity for them to learn and develop themselves.
It could be also that they are feeling undervalued and could have resentment in their heart about a particular issue or a situation. By having open communication, it opens the door for this to be solved and also creates an opportunity for greater understanding to take place.
In NLP we are taught that, every behaviour has a positive intention. So if an employee is being difficult, it’s somehow helping them one way or the other. What is the positive intention that they have by behaving that way? You need to look why and how it is helping them.
Instead of being frustrated, empower them to have a better behavior by understanding the root cause of it and suggest alternative behaviors that would really help them.
I hope this article is of help to you! Do check out my website in terms of leadership skill training that I provide for managers. I can also create custom trainings programs according to the orginisational needs.
You can follow me on my LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/jobthecoach
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