How To Deal With Difficult Team Members

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Having difficult people on your team is very challenging. They can frustrate your efforts and make you want to give up.

From experience, most of them want to see you prove yourself as a leader before they can follow you.

In all honesty, they are a blessing in disguise because their opposition will keep you on your toes and challenge you to properly hone your people management skills.

Their antagonism will also help you assess yourself and your impact on the team.

Here are some steps you can take to handle them;

1. Check your approach

This is the point where you have to objectively analyse your leadership style and/or people skills.

• Are you a leader who genuinely cares about your people?
• Are they just tools that you use to achieve goals and targets?
• How do you communicate with them?
• Do they lose their self-worth when they are around you?
• Are their inputs and impact being acknowledged or recognised?
• Do they see themselves as members of the team too?

2. Watch your attitude

As a leader, you have to learn not to take criticism personal. Let it be more about the team's success and not your ego.

If you don't manage your personal feelings, they will get in the way and lead to a breakdown in communication.?

Not everybody will like your leadership style but there is always a way to get all talents on board amicably.

3. Study

Try to understand the root cause of the resistance. More often than not, there is always a ringleader.

Invest time in genuinely getting to know the person or set of people. Find out their concerns and if there are personal challenges you can help solve.

If there are challenges that you cannot solve, do not leave them hanging. Make an effort to point them to possible solutions. Show love and care.

4. Dialogue

In some cases, you might need to talk to the person, ringleader or group about their actions and how it is affecting the team.

Be careful with your use of words and mannerisms.?Also, watch out for non-verbal signals that might help you detect and solve the problem.

Talk less, listen more, and ask questions to understand the issues further. This can also serve as an opportunity to recommend professional counselling sessions if the need arises.

5. Make changes

Be willing to make changes if need be, for the success of the team. Don't be a rigid team leader.

6. Flushing

It gets to a point where you have to flush out bad eggs from the system so they do not corrupt other team members.

The fact is that some people have bad attitudes and they certainly will display their unruly nature everywhere they go.

If laying them off is the best thing to do, don’t be afraid to take the bold decision for the good of the team.

I pray that the Spirit of God grants you the wisdom to handle difficult issues that may arise as you interact with people on your team in the name of Jesus. Amen!

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Thank you for your time.

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