Rol has some very good insights into how to deal with
problem people within an organization. [See the message
LO7859 for Rol's comments.]
I concur with what Rol said, while recognizing that there are
no "elegant" solutions to the problem. Right now, my team
is having to deal with a person who consistently
demonstrates the following behaviors:
1) Constantly disagrees with every new idea or approach;
he has an incredible knack for finding problems with an idea
and then exploiting them to their fullest. No one in the team
can ever recall this guy agreeing with anything that didn't
originate with him.
2) He becomes exceptionally belligerent when people
disagree with his opinions. He automatically assumes that
the only possible reason for disagreeing is stupidity on the
part of the dissenter.
3) He bludgeons management on a weekly basis (so much
so that it is a divine miracle that he is still employed).
4) He's not interested in team work; as far as he is
concerned any attempt to build team unity is an attempt
to practice psycho-therapy, and therefore he absolutely
refuses to participate in team-based activities (because no
one in the group is a certified psychiatrist).
BTW this guy has one of the highest IQS in the team, and
somehow he seems to think that automatically makes him
right all the time.
The result of this persons behavior: Some of our most
productive and competent employees have left the group,
because they feel with this guy around they can't produce
the results (as a team) that they truly want.
I recently talked to this person about his behavior and
asked if he would consider maybe adopting a new and
more constructive approach. He told me to engage in
rather vulgar behavior, and excused me from his office.
In my opinion the guy ought to be canned. Most everyone
else feels the same way, but management is very reluctant.
Basically, as a team, we've denied his existence in our
community: He comes to meetings, gripes and moans, and
leaves. We ignore it, and go on with our work the way we
would as if he wasn't even around.
Over time this will negatively impact him as he will not have
access to the knowledge contained within the community.
Right now, the guy is pretty good technically (which is why
management is reluctant to let him go), but having
removed him from the community, that will change over
time.
And so my suggestion: Ignore problem people and they'll
either conform to the social standards of the community or
their skills will quickly become outdated and their value to
the company is diminish in a hurry.
--Benjamin B. Compton ("Ben") | email: bcompton@novell.com Novell GroupWare Technical Engineer | fax: (801) 222-6991
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>