There are times when we come across with people who are arrogant, try to prove their point, always complaining, over demanding, critical, fail in their commitments, not flexible, etc., making situation grim. Imposing ground rules is fair to some extent. What other techniques or steps would you put forward to deal with such people in such situations? Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Apply Newton Laws of Motions. Mainly, the third law (action-reaction). The key point is to understand that there is not difficult people and there is not difficult situation. Reality is a matter of perception and perception is a subject matter. We need to work on that. That is "the art" of stakeholder analysis (identification/clasification/management). Saving Changes...
Product Operations Program ManagerBarcelona, Cataluña, Spain
Toxic people should always be avoided. In the social life, it might be easier than at work.
I understand that you are asking from a PM perspective, with respects a troublesome team member. It definitely requires soft skills - the first step would be having an ad-hoc meeting with this member and raise the concerns, explaining as well the implications that this behavior or lack of commitment may have on the project quality. If this proves unsuccessful, perhaps it makes sense to replace the resource.
It is not an easy situation/answer - many factors come into play Saving Changes...
Rosalinda BernabeProduct Management ServiceNow Integration Program| SMBC GroupNorth Carolina, United States
You should try to provide specific scenario on which part of people conflicts/challenges you are encountering as this will enable us to provide specific and applicable techniques. Saving Changes...
Malhar VishwarupeAssociate Manager| Harsco India Services Pvt LtdHyderabad, Telangana, India
Hi Anupam, This is too broad area to discuss and is called "People Management". It will be easy to comment if you mention any specific scenario.
As far as techniques to deal with such situations are concerned, those vary depending on situation, parties involved, level of authority, attitudes, policies and many other things.
Learning in area of people management happens gradually. Mostly by experience than theoretical knowledge. Saving Changes...
1. As Sergio said, we need to frame the situation properly. This is so important
2. Make sure we are not part of the problem... and if so, work on ourselves first. A neutral 3rd party may need to assist if possible
3. Whatever problem is left from the other side, instead of looking at the symptoms (most of what you listed - arrogance, complaining etc. - may just be symptoms), understand the WHY... Why are they doing what they are doing? Addressing the deeper WHY could help address the issue/issues once and for all
4. Recognize that not everything is fixable, and if you reach that point, then impose the ground rules, let go of the relationship, etc... whatever may be appropriate for the situation Saving Changes...
If you are a real manager (with formal authority) then you can make use of your authority and deal with the situation (impose sanctions or fire the employee). If you are just a project manager then your only option is to escalate the problem to the manager to which this person reports to. This option however can backfire and you may end up in trouble if that manager defends his/her employee.
Also if this person has some skills which are critical to your project then you have to accept the situation as it is since any action against him/her has the potential to make your situation worse.
This situation should be dealt with extreme care as someone with authority may consider that person more important than you for the specific activity (project) and you may end up being replaced. My advice is that, unless you have formal authority to impose sanctions to employees, you should avoid at all costs any kind of conflict and try to accept that person as he is and as much as possible try to collaborate with him. I have discovered that using a soft approach is much better than starting a conflict. Saving Changes...
Workers in a specific industry called for a strike to protest against the entry of an MNC unit, resulting in suspension of production, profit cut outs, market cut off, loss in sources of materials.
Fixed charges such as salaries, taxes, interest, etc. continue to be incurred during the strike. The existence of the firm itself is threatened by a prolonged strike.
Management and Workers fail to come to an agreement.
As a Project Manager, you see your project is in trouble. The ongoing strike resulted in loss of stakeholders’ interest, sponsor and staff commitment, delivery is impacted and the client stopped communicating. Lot of time, cost and effort has been invested. The success of the project means a lot to you, and you are not ready to give up. Saving Changes...
Anupam, I appreciate your commitment to the project, but I think the organization has much bigger issues to solve than this project. I would consider formally shelving the project (placing on hold - whatever this may entail in your organization) and let your top Management work through the strike issues before restarting
Anupam, I appreciate your commitment to the project, but I think the organization has much bigger issues to solve than this project. I would consider formally shelving the project (placing on hold - whatever this may entail in your organization) and let your top Management work through the strike issues before restarting
Thanks Samuel.
Project is terminated.
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1 reply by Rosalinda Bernabe
Jun 04, 2016 5:17 AM
Rosalinda Bernabe
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Dear Anupam, I am very glad you have shared this scenario. Now, I understand the comment that someone said that there is more at stake than the project as there is a strike going on after all.
What I don't understand is does the fact there is a strike means that the company really was at a standstill, that the company is on the verge of bankcruptcy? If I believe that the company can withstand the strike and will return to normalcy, hence the project will be resume later (as there is a strong indication that it will be put on hold = which was verified when you claim it was terminated), the solving the challenge is indeed a good way to increase and show your mettle as an effective project manager.
Saving Changes...
Gopal SahaiCorporate Trainer| Self employedNew Delhi, Delhi, India
Difficult People... has a pretty relative definition. I guess difficult people are those with whom most people experience difficulty (like communication barrier or productivity or attitude), But I have also experienced being on very good terms with the so-labelled difficult people in the project and at the same time been on very difficult terms with people whom others thought are easy to manage!
In some cases I had to plan a specific strategy to deal with such difficult people, like
(a) having explicitly clear communication with them - trying not to give them opportunity to play on words and thereby manipulate outcome.
(b) involving them at the onset of a discussion and making them speak their mind a lot.
(c) Pre-identifying where they would play on trapping me into a tight box, quoting their own remarks back to them for agreement / concurrence.
(d) Going into (not so necessary) detailing of the task so that such people are left with little choice but to promise and deliver.
(e) Avoiding over praise and maintaining a cap for praising for what got achieved. Over praising leads to such people taking things for granted, thereby creating problems with the next task.
Though shared a few ways above, but cannot obviously guarantee myself that they would always work in my favour. Mostly they do, sometimes not.
I guess it is more of 'how' we communicate on what has to be communicated. Saving Changes...
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