Sac Partners
Turning “Problem” Staff into Great Staff
10 Principles for Working with Your Staff
by Michael Morrow
Finding and keeping qualified staff in after-school programs is always challenging, which makes it all the more difficult when directors have to fire staff for performance or attitude problems. So we constantly seek ways to work with “difficult” staff.
A recent SAC-L listserv posting asked for help in ways to reprimand staff who are not meeting expectations. As someone who has been a reluctant manager – because I have a very difficult time reprimanding staff – I could relate to the question.
So I put on my presenter hat and pulled out information from my basic “working with children” workshop, as well as my “Bosses from Heaven, Bosses from Hell” workshop, and provided some thoughts on working with difficult staff.
Interestingly, reprimanding staff can be a lot like doing it with children. First, I don’t like the term “reprimand.” That’s really negative, kind of like when your puppy pees on the carpet and you do the “BAD DOG!!” thing. What might be preferable? How about “correcting” or “shaping” or “mentoring”?
10 Principles
Here are my Top 10 Principles for working with staff:
1. Catch it early: If you let it slide the first time, the person will expect you to continue to let it slide.
2. Do it privately: Embarrassing people in front of others is relationship suicide. Avoid it.
3. Make sure the person understands what they did, or did not do, and is clear about their responsibility. To do that you ask before you tell: “Do you understand what time you’re supposed to arrive?” “Do you know why it is important to be here at that time?”
4. Get them to commit: “Can you be on time in the future?”
5. Ask how you can assist: “What can I do to help you be on time?”
6. Make sure they know the consequences of not being able to keep their word (see #4).
7. Document everything! You might even consider a written contract, which the employee signs (see #4), and goes into their file.
8. Have a very clearly defined process, stated in your staff handbook, for dealing with issues like this.
9. Don’t take it personally: This one is touch for many of us because we’re “people oriented,” and don’t like “disciplining” people. But it is your job – and why you make the big bucks (yeah, right!).
10. Most important: When the staff does it right – notice it! Improving behavior – as we know from working with kids – is a “baby steps” process. Notice and reward each step, no matter how small.
This last one is vital. Whether it is kids or adults, we tend to spend far more time trying to change negative behavior than we do reinforcing positive behavior. Turn that around.
Celebrate with your staff. Thank them often – and in a variety of ways. Never forget a birthday. Surprise them with a card “just because.” Throw a party. Bring pizza to a staff meeting.
In our field we don’t have many carrots we can dangle in front of people. If they don’t like how the job is going, they can usually walk and make as much – or more – doing something else. So it is much more effective to emphasize the positive in order to minimize the negative. It is all about relationships. The more they like, trust and respect you, the easier it’ll be to do the “tough stuff.”Great bosses almost invariably create, and inspire, great staff. For more resources I highly recommend Brinkman and Kirschner’s Dealing with People You Can’t Stand and Carson and Carson’s Defective Bosses. And Roger Anderson’s 100 Tips for Managers (Oct 1995 Rotarian) has been a super resource for me, from #1: Spend at least 15 minutes a day handwriting thank-you notes; to #49: Be a positive role model; to #73: Don’t play favorites; to #100: Accept that some days you’re the pigeon, some days you’re the statue.
Celebrate the pigeon days, and remember that being a great boss – and minimizing the statue days – takes lots of knowledge, experience, and hard work.
Good luck!