Everyone wants the best, we live in a dream world of fantasy were the entire world around us is articulated with absolute sophistication oozing out from all corners. But, is this the reality? No it is not, often we encounter people or situations that are opposite to our thought process. Realisation of this dawns to the fact that we have different mindsets. If we take an example of a family we observe that each individual thinks and behaves differently, similarity can be observed where we have collective brains put together for a cause. In organisational context, where employees have to work for a defined vision, it is important to manage difficult personalities, so as to make your way through. T.J. Taylor, Consultant at TeamBuildingUSA.com gives three keys to manage difficult personalities, which are:
• Understand your own personality.
• Understand the personality of those you manage.
• Changing the way you communicate to each of your direct reports.
However, what if an employee has to deal with a manager with a difficult personality traits or a bad boss. Author Gini Graham Scott in the book, A Survival Guide for Working with Bad Bosses, defines, “any boss who is difficult and hard to deal with or who has trouble directing and guiding employees to effectively do the work can qualify as a bad boss”. The author further explained the behavioural traits of such kind of boss and wrote that such a boss might be incompetent, give unclear instructions, blame others, take undue credit, be high-strung and hyper, be disorganised, act like a power mad tyrant. The author gives an example and says that there may be occasions when you will have to stand up for what you believe, even if it means possibly losing your job. Scott writes, “that you need to find to a balanced solution that will allow for the greatest chance for success. You need to figure out when to follow the rules and when to bend or break them; when to be forceful and aggressive and when to back down; and when to act on your own and when to seek out alliances with other employees to negotiate with your boss together for the most satisfying solution.” This is where understanding the situation, other person and being flexible come into play.
Finding difficult people in your organisation
A lot of pschologists have researched and have come out with a lot of terms to define difficult behavours. If you were to trace a few in your organisation then you just need to be vigilent about certain behaviours. The Georgia health Sciences University, in a document, identifies three main types of difficult behaviours, namely Shaming, Passive Hostility and Team Sabotage. Traits of these behaviours are as follows:
• Shaming: This type of behaviour exibits humiliation, sarcasm. These people are potshots and love to point mistakes.
• Passive hostility: Such type of people display passive-aggressive behavior; distrusts others’ opinions, rejects feedback; stakes out their territory and seems clueless of own toxicity.
• Team sabotage: The employees who conduct team surveillance; meddle in the work of team and abuse authority, come under this behaviour.
The document further specifies the strategies through which the difficult people, displaying such traits, can be handled. The unversity proposes organisational strategies, team strategies and individual strategies for dealing with difficult people. The document also specifies that one should learn to recognise when the person is being difficult, try to analyse whatever is happening around, do not leave them unaddressed for things might get worse, do not gossip about the person and never lose your temper.
Understanding the leadership traits that can easily handling people with difficult behaviour A Journal by Victor Dulewicz and Malcolm Higgs broadly grouped diverse range of leadership behaviour under three major categories, which are as follows:
• Goal-oriented: A set of behaviours in which the leader sets direction and behaves in a way in which he/she plays a significant role in directing others to achieve the key goals required to attain the performance required. This is not
to suggest an authoritarian approach but rather behaviours which are strongly leader-centric.
• Involving: In this category the leader’s focus remains on providing a strong sense of direction. However, there is a more significant focus on involving others in both setting direction and, to a larger extent, in determining how goals will be achieved.
Engaging: Behaviours in this category are focused on facilitating others in achieving both nature of the direction and means of achieving the necessary goals. The leader is more concerned with developing the capability of others to achieve than with the close direction of the enterprise.
A lot of researchers and professionals have stateed that the best way to handle the people who are difficult is to give them some thing to look forward to, engage them, involve them and be flexible with them. This makes them flexible enough and keeps them away from being negative.
How important are the personality tests for organisations
A lot of organisations today depend on the personality tests before hiring. This helps them know their people better and best utilise them, for organisational growth and productivity.
In a white paper by the Missouri State University, Steven L. Thomas and Wesley A. Scroggins write that, “It is widely recognised that many human resource functions have the capacity to dramatically alter the effectiveness of organisations. None have more potential impact on an organisation’s effectiveness and its ability to develop a sustainable competitive advantage than the staffing function.”
Another research document navigates organisation to use personality assessments in selection. The research paper says that these tests help in:
• Identifying the type of person you want to hire: You need to begin by determining what personality traits are related to job success. That way, when you begin assessing candidates, you know what to look for.
• Administering the assessment to candidates: Personality assessments can be completed online or by paper-pencil.
• Interpret the candidates’ results After you receive their personality trait scores. These scores are like a measuring stick; they tell you what level of a trait a person has.
• Make a decision on who to hire: After the candidates have completed the assessment, you need to choose who you want to hire. When using personality assessments, you need a way to compare how well a candidate matches with the ideal traits suitable for your business and organisational culture.
