Problem solving typologies. Who is the most dangerous colleague?

Hey you!

Have you ever felt guilty watching yourself throwing problems towards your team or colleagues?

Have you ever felt bothered continuously solving issues created from lazy colleagues?

When I look to certain employees behaviour in some situations I feel like I'm watching a toddler having his meal alone. Throwing the meal here and there, creating chaos, complaining about everything and adding more and more issues every minute. Without doing nothing useful for the situation resolution.

That cute toddler is able to make even the most patient parent go mad about that crazy moment. But he's only a toddler. He can't do nothign but that!

If you act like a toddler at work you must recognize it as soon as possible and stop doing it. If you can. Or troubles will come back to you. Sooner or later. 

Talking about company issues and problems, if you act like a baby at work, you will be seen like the Roger Rabbit cartoon baby. "Voluntary" creating issues for colleagues just because he don't know what to do presuming that others will do his job for him.

But "the toddler" is not the only kind of colleague you can have. It's obvious that in each office, in each company, there are many kind of colleagues. Due to different people characters and lots of variables. 

Looking only to the problem solving/problem warning area I think we can divide the whole company into only 4 kind of behaviours.

I divided the quadrant using two vectors:

• the level of knowledge on the X axe
• the level of proactivity on the Y axe. 

Have a brief look at this quadrant and find yourself ;-)

As you can see we have 4 kind of colleagues:

• THE TROUBLESPITCHER
• THE ISSUE INJECTOR
• THE LAZY TOXIC OPPORTUNIST
• THE TROUBLESHOOTER (the famous one)

Don't feel guilty nor positive. Everyone of us could be one of this 4 kind of colleague in a certain time. KEEP IT IN MIND.

THE TROUBLESPITCHER

Opposed to the troubleshooter, the troublespitcher is "the toddler" of the company. The troublespitcher litterally "pitch" the problem. Like a baseball ball. Many fast baseball balls together. With no mercy. Throws tons of problems as if everything is a blocking issue for the whole company. Usually the troublespitcher not only spits problems towards the team, but he's also not detailed nor useful.

We don't have to fall in a common mistake: thinking that the troublespitcher is a bad person. Many times he simply doesn't have enough knowledge to get the problem, nor to solve it. Everyone of us could be a trooublespitcher in a certain area, for a certain time. This is very important. We all have to recognize when we are maybe exaggerating in our behaviour. I saw "temporary troublespitchers" both at C-level and at junior level. The real big issue is when somebody act as a troublespitcher too long in too many areas. That's a very big HR issue. 

THE ISSUE INJECTOR

The issue injector is the one who really wants to help. But he's not the right one to solve it. Due to a lack of knowledge. This kind of employee is not a big issue for the company and he can become a good deal. Just need enough training/education. He's the one on wich you must invest your money to grow the team. But many times the issue injector could be tricky. Because he wastes the team's time. You guess that he's on it, he's solving the problem, but due to an excess of self confindence and a lack of intellectual honesty, he fails to solve it and gives back to the team a doubled problem. 

"I didn't want to do it wrong." "I'm sorry. I just wanted to help.". Those are the typical sentences of the issue injector. It's very important to give self awareness to the issue injector. He needs to keep the good and positive "help attitude" but be able to evaluate the real odds he has of being useful in that given problem solving step. 

Don't feel guilty nor positive. Everyone of us could be one of this 4 kind of colleague in a certain time. KEEP IT IN MIND.

THE LAZY TOXIC OPPORTUNIST

This kind of colleague owns all the skills and knowledge to tackle the issue and solve it. But due to many different reasons he losted the attitude. He doesn't want to act fast, to solve the problem. Or worse, he use the situation to get advantage on others, or on the company. I personally think that this kind of colleague is the worst. And the most dangerouse. He's litterally toxic. Because many times he complaints about everything without doing nothing. He pushes down the team.

But he differs from the troublespitcher that is not able to solve what he yells. The lazy opportunist is a troublespitcher that doesn't want to solve nothing. It's the most despicable situation. Let's say that, having the "powers" to do something good and waste it is the best way to act as an asshole.

Just like "the toddler" you don't have to think that this kind of colleague is necessarily a bad person. Often this colleague is only a good problem solver that has been treated in a bad way from the company or colleagues. Often the creation of this kind of people it's an HR fault. We can say that almost 100% of the time we find this kind of colleague it's an HR fault.

Here's the reason why I say this: if this lazy opportunist acts like this by default and he has been hired, then it's obviously an HR mistake (bad hiring process); likewise if this colleague became a lazy opportunist while working in our company it's an HR mistake too. IMHO, there is a very low % of possibilities that a person who wasn't a "lazy toxic opportunist" has become it during the time only due to extra-company factors.

Just like Hancock (the Will Smith GOD I used for the picture of the Lazy Opportunist) you can unbelievably redeem this kind of colleague.

The good news for the HR is that we have very high chances to bring it back to the top-right of the quadrant if we find the reason why an opportunist has become it. 

In terms of resources, if we need to choose wether if it's the case to invest in a conversion of an "Opportunist" or in a growth of an "Injector" we will need to evaluate what's the goal. If we need to push for a short term ROI in a crisis phase it may be better to invest into the "Opportunist". If we need to push for an organic and stable growth, instead, it's definitely better to invest in an "Injector". 

Let's say that, having the "powers" to do something good and waste it is the best way to act as an asshole.

THE TROUBLESHOOTER

Here we are, finally. The best resource for your team. Here in this case I'm talking about a generic troubleshooter, let's say a generic problem solver. I'm not talking about a "tech troubleshooter" -> the one who owns the "problem scouting and solving" role. I'm talking about that kind of person who is proactive in actively solving an issue when it comes to his path. Or the one who predicts possible issues when discussing a new approach or a new project.

This is that kind of colleague that have both enough skills, knowledge and willingness to be able to solve issues actively and fast, avoiding the creation of new problems while doing it. Typically is that kind of person who brings you the possible solution together with the issue signalation. At any rate is for sure that kind of person who does not fall in panic when comes the troubles and is always honestly positive about the possibility to solve them. It's useless to say that this is a gold mine from an HR point of view. Because it brings to the team both a good attitude and cool enthusiasm (in addition to the issue resolution). 

This is the only kind of "Problem Solving Type of People" that we may never be able to be.

We can always have the chance to become a Troubleshooter for our team/company but we always need to choose to take that chance. It's impossible to become a troubleshooter passively. Instead, it's possible to become passively any kind of the other three typologies. 

It's also useless to say (but it's worth remarking) that firing this kind of people must be a well thinked decision. It's a real pity to loose this kind of employees.

NOW LET'S LOOK AT THIS EDITED QUADRANT. SHOWING US THE LEVEL OF DANGER FOR OUR TEAM PF EACH KIND OF COLLEAGUE.

IMHO, the "Lazy toxic opportunist" is by far the most dangerous one. You can easily find "Troublespitchers" and "Issue Injectors" and manage them in order to balance the team. Take care about the Troubleshooters ;-) .

What's your opinion about this topic? Do you agree?

See you.

Paolo