Dealing with Problem Subordinates: A Different Approach

Here’s what to do if they’re on your team

[Disclaimer: The article below is intended as a commentary on our current corporate culture, and is not aimed at any specific firm or organisation, nor do the explanations or examples refer to any company specifically. In other words, lighten up and don't take any of this personally.]

My last piece on Bad bosses invited an interesting and valid comment. Why blame only the bosses — the subordinates can be a freaking nightmare too.

Now that is an undeniable truth.

There are as many frameworks for dealing with people problems as there are middle-management HR folks starting their own consultancy these days. To that mix, allow me to add my own interpretation of problem cases at the workplace. I make no claims to scientific accuracy (then again, very little in management theory can), but I can confirm that it is borne out of a lot of my own personal catastrophes at work and enlightening conversations with my B-school classmates.

(I also want to invite my classmates, some of whom are quite the thinkers, and everyone else for that matter, to add your notes in the comments section below and help me improve this further.)

In my opinion, all problems with a worker or employee or teammate come down to how much they talk and how much they do. Think of someone under you or around you who might as well be physically tugging your hair out from your scalp, and see where they fall in the following matrix.

To be fair, there is always a positive side to each of these cases. In fact, each one of them does offer unique strengths to their work and their teams. You should consider each case holistically with those strengths in mind, before you lose your cool and call HR.

That said, back to the matrix.

On the horizontal axis (X-axis) is the natural desire for the person to talk. Consider, in a typical meeting, what proportion of their talk was without being asked. Someone who has a 50–50 mix of unprompted to prompted talk would probably be in the middle of that axis.

On the vertical axis (Y-axis) is their performance at work. Here you should look at how much of their work doesn’t need direction, reminders, and management guidance. Someone who manages to complete at least half their work proactively, independently and without inputs, without setting the office on fire, would be in the centre of that axis.

So, based on that I have classified people problem cases into four types,

The Lost

They’re not good at their job, and they stay silent and keep sweeping the broken glass under the carpet, hoping no one notices. They’re the silent killer — the cancer — of the team. Not only will you spend late hours and Sunday mornings correcting their mistakes or coaching them, but also expect overall quality and timeliness to drop across the team board. Maybe it’s not their fault — they’ve not been trained well enough or they’re just not a good fit for this role, but their falling standards sends a message to everyone else that missed deadlines and cutting corners is okay.

Don’t let this fester for long. Either you build or bundle. That is, either you coach and build their capability, or bundle them off to another team or firm where they are likely to do better. Be honest and be clear, but also be fair and be respectful.

The Talkers

My favourite type — the people who can talk till judgement day but can’t get work done today. Notice how they only keep talking about a success from two years ago. In other words, they have nothing to show for but they hope, and I suspect sometimes genuinely believe, that their talk is making a difference to others’ work. It isn’t. It’s wasting everyone else’s time with unnecessary ideas and projects. And when jargon-drenched vacuous monologues in pointless update meetings have ceased to make an impression, the political maneuvering starts. Let’s make someone else look bad, and don’t worry if what we do is in the dark grey border just adjacent to unethical.

Don’t give them an audience. That’s what they need and have been feeding off the soul of polite listeners, sometimes for decades. Performance management in current day firms has mutated into an unholy abomination reflecting our worst mental biases. Someone who talks a really good game is sometimes mistaken for a good performer. Don’t make that mistake and don’t give them a platform to fool others.

The Silent

I was kidding earlier. This group is actually my favourite type, maybe because I have a lifetime membership to this problem club. They do the work but can’t, don’t, or won’t talk about it. Maybe it’s a confidence issue or a personality one where the person simply prefers fewer words. While they deserve kudos for their work, but their verbal economising often leads to others forming inaccurate assumptions about them, and sometimes even their team and their boss. The paradox is that while not speaking up can lead to losing out on the juicier opportunities, it can also lead to coming back with more work because declining work artfully would require someone to speak up assertively, which they won’t.

Two points of advice here. One, don’t be an a**hole and take credit for their work. They will practically beg you to do the presentation for them but don’t make it that easy for them. Put differently, don’t let them sit comfortably in the back. Share the stage if that helps, but don’t let them lose out on these opportunities for growth.

The Racers

I got four words for you — Get outta the way! In case you’re wondering what sort of sub-species of humans become CEOs, it’s this type. They’re a really small proportion of any population sample, and they radiate enough energy to charge all mobile phones within a ten-foot radius. However, they receive such frequent kicks of dopamine from their successes that they often go racing past their internal safe speed-limit. Sometimes their need for speed bruises another team’s ego, and sometimes it bruises folks within the same team. Dark clouds of stress are almost always hovering above their heads, and outright burnouts and meltdowns are an ever-present risk.

You know those ads by liquor firms asking friends to not let friends drive drunk. Similarly, don’t let them drive too fast. Everyone has their own ways to cool down. Use those means and be the guy who takes away the keys from his intoxicated (on success) friend.

You can’t change someone’s personality, at least not after a certain age, but you can mitigate the negative side, while leveraging the positive to good use. I believe that, except for fraud every other performance “defect” can be remedied or tolerated. Remember you’re not perfect either. For all you know, your boss is currently reading this and thinking about you.

Take it easy, and keep building a good life.

Arif Mansuri writes, coaches, facilitates and does whatever executives in MNCs do. 

For more of his work, served in smaller doses, also follow him on twitter @ArifMansuri006.