While at a conference last week I gave a presentation to a group of medical office managers in a workshop with topics on how we can become a better manager.
I was the first to speak and asked the audience how many of them had staff members that they did not like. I was pretty amazed at the number of hands that went up.
As I probed further with questions I found out that there were a few common reasons these managers did not like some people on their staff.
Personality conflicts.
Poor work ethic.
Lack of ability to complete job tasks.
Lack of professionalism.
Questionable integrity.
My blog posts this week will cover these issues and how they possibly can be dealt with.
Personality conflicts will always be at the top of the list when it comes to people issues in the workplace. Managers need to know how to address this issue whether it is employees that struggle with each other or, as in this case; the manager is having a problem with a staff member’s personality.
The first thing that needs to be addressed is defining what exactly the “rub” is with the person’s personality that makes them hard to work with. To narrow the issue down as to whether it is your problem or theirs ask yourself these questions:
Is this person disruptive to my work? If so, how?
Is this person mean? If so, how?
Is this person difficult to work with? If so, how?
Once you can define what the actual issue is, then you can figure out how to address it, if necessary. Many times personality issues are just things we do not like about the other person such as, they are loud, they are picky, they are needy, they whine, etc. I think you get the idea.
Issues like these are ones that can we can learn to work with or address in a nice way to let the other person know that it causes a “rub” as they are true personality issues.
If they fall outside of “personality” and are issues that truly cause stress or anger then they certainly need to be addressed with Human Resources or the next level of management to get them resolved.
We need to remember that each of us is different and we all will rub others wrong at one time or another. If we can look at personality issues as unique differences between each of us it may be easier to accept them.
“Don’t hate me because I am different, admire me because I am unique.” ~ Unknown
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