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How To Motivate Your Problem People: A Case Study
How To Motivate Your Problem People: A Case Study
A Case Study
1. Case Summary
A lot of employees are low maintenance self-starters. But following the 80:20
rule, it´s the 20% of difficult ones that take 80% of the average managers time.
The article from Nigel Nicholson gives some insight into how managers can get
these people to follow their lead ?
2. Problem Identification
How do you motivate intractable employees--the ones who never do what you
want and also take up all your time? According to Nigel Nicholson, you can't:
Individuals must motivated themselves.
3. Problem Analysis
The manager can only create the circumstances in which their inherent
motivation, which most people have, is freed-up productively for the company.
The article proposes a three step approach to dealing with such employees,
based on three assumptions:
• That everyone has motivational energy.
• That this energy is, for whatever reason, being blocked in the workplace.
• That removing such blockages requires employee participation.
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employee dissatisfaction, the manager needs to reflect on his/her role in causing
the problem, beginning with something as basic as how he/she talks to the
employee. Analysis of the context is also important – is an aspect of the current
situation bringing out the worst in the employee or the manager?
Step 3 is called “Stage the Encounter” and describes the meeting, held on
neutral ground, at which the manager´s observations and reflections are voiced
to the employee, in the hope that this revised analysis of the situation may open
up new views along with new solutions.
Nigel Nicholson concedes that the process can be time-consuming, but argues
that the benefits justify this, with the improvement of both individual performance
and the positive effect on the organization as a whole, as people see problem
cases being dealt with. Nicholson doesn´t promise a solution every time, but
assures that the process always leads to resolution of the problem. This well-
structured article also includes a helpful checklist on “Seven Hazards in Handling
Problem People”:
1
Have you been trying to "tell and sell" - that is, convince the person of the
reasonableness of your position? Don't be an evangelist. Be a psychologist. The
most successful salespeople discover and fulfil people's needs rather than try to
change them.
2
Have you been dismissing out of hand how someone perceives you? Remember
the dictum, "if something is perceived as real, it is real in its consequences." It is
the other person's reality you are going to have to work with, not just your own.