Leaders can prepare for many challenges, but specific problems with individual employees can arise unexpectedly. Maybe one employee shows up late every day, and another brings sudden and unexpected worries about their pay.
While you can’t be ready to solve every problem immediately, there are tools leaders can use to prepare an answer to every problem that arises in the workplace. Below, 15 https://cafe-madrid.com/ Business Council members share the biggest issues they’ve personally faced with an employee and how they’ve addressed those challenges.
Members of the https://cafe-madrid.com/ Business Council talk about difficult situations they have faced with employees and how they have solved any problems.
Photos courtesy of individual members.
1. An employee with another job
I was dealing with an employee who turned out to have more than one job. The first step was to have an honest conversation and ask probing questions to confirm the concerns. Once confirmed, I followed the advice I got from a unicorn founder: “If you’re starting to think you might need to let someone go, don’t wait; do it. It will save both of you time and energy. It’s inevitable.” .” – Denys Grabchak, performance
2. Poor Performance Team Members
Every entrepreneur has faced poor performance, but the hardest thing to watch is a great artist who doesn’t see his own potential. Trying to motivate a great person to become all they can be is hard at best. It’s also hard to watch someone struggle with a lack of self-esteem and personal confidence. It takes a lot of coaching and time, but it’s great to see someone rise to the next level. – Scott Ford, California Builder Services
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3. Mental Health Problems
I’ve had a drunk employee drive his car into our building and another employee who didn’t know she was pregnant gave birth in the bathroom. But nothing compares to today’s mental health problems. Many employees have expressed their struggles to focus and their struggles with depression. We create more company bonding through events such as ghost days, multi-day days and offering mental health days off. We all feel better when we play together. – Jennifer Coy, Beauty Care Choices
4. Employees who want to work from home
A key employee wanted to work from home permanently or was leaving for another occasion. They explained the difficulty of achieving goals from home and the longer journey to growth and personal development, and looked at the long-term vision and future. We agreed on part-time WFH and built a track and system for others to explore too. – Robert Barbonic, Evershore Financial Group
5. Executives go against advice
A C-level executive agreed to a client’s request after I specifically said I don’t approve. This was a major breach of trust. I had them try to fulfill the commitment through a third-party developer to fulfill the request within the constraints of the customer’s quote. In the end, they had to cancel the deal as they felt it was not possible and financially unfeasible. Reality is stronger than any rule. – Asaf Darash, regpack
6. A Celebration of an Employee’s Identity
An employee of many years wrote an unexpected company-wide email, asking everyone to address them by their new name. They explained that it was part of their transition as a non-binary person. The leadership team followed up with a simple memo asking everyone to deliver on our commitment to diversity and inclusion. Expressions of support for the employee poured in from all corners of our company. – Wendeen Eolis, Eolis International Group
7. Unintended Tones in Online Communication
Coordination with employees and/or advisors requires discussions. Emails, Slack messages, texts and other media can lead to an unintended tone that can lead to a complete breakdown of communication. If online communication leads to more than three back-and-forth messages increasing in negative connotation, suggest calling and suspend further discussion until then. – Emilia D’Anzica, Growth Molecules
8. A lack of responsibility
I once had an employee, who was a top producer, act on my behalf and enter new markets without holding them accountable for our core values, core focus and standard operating procedures. This was my failure in management. After we removed them, we’ve since implemented accountability SOPs and automations to make sure I never fail at that again. – Carson Porter, REV Agency Syndicate
9. Confusion about goals and expectations
Since all team members have different levels of experience, there are many major issues that we face. The most challenging problem revolves around not clearly understanding goals and expectations after meetings. This means that we think that all parties are on the same page while we are not. We implemented a minutes of the meeting email after the meeting to summarize all the points discussed. – Udi Dorner, Set schedule
10. Young workers are not acting properly
The biggest problem an employee faces is working with and teaching new graduates the proper way to act in the office and complete assigned work quickly. As business owners, we are often confronted with employees who are new to the workforce, meaning our job as professionals is to help them overcome their limitations and show them they can do more. – Brian Town, Michigan Creative
11. Salary Disputes
One employee issue we had was someone getting upset about the pay. We pay different scales depending on role, experience and performance. With a disgruntled employee arguing about someone else making more money, we offered them the opportunity to take Vanderbilt Bootstrap classes in the evening to continue their education. This offer was more beneficial to us and it allowed them to earn a higher income. It solved the problem. – Tammy Sons, Tn Nursery
12. Lack of motivation for high productivity
My biggest problem that keeps coming up is the lack of motivation to have high productivity. I believe that self-motivation is the cake and the company’s incentive schemes are the icing on the cake. If there is no pie, none of the HR incentives will work. Training your interviewers and HR to identify a candidate’s self-motivation levels is the most critical step, which companies often skip. – Puneet Gaur, next quarter
13. Confusion Over Project Ownership
Everyone easily had another person to turn to to get the job done, which would slow down the process and delivery. The solution was simple: individual performance management systems (PMS) parameters that would be self-regulating and monitored on a monthly basis. This made people more motivated to own their jobs, making the process easy and aligned. – Trishneet Arora, TAC Security
14. Late orders and unhappy customers
We had high turnover and poor performance. People showed up late, let things slip and customers were dissatisfied. So, we made one thing clear: If a doctor showed up late for surgery or a tow truck took two hours to get to you, would you trust that person or company? What if someone asked us for a refund and we took it off their pay? They understood then that this is a team. – Jean Paul De Silva Clauwaert, Web Content Development
15. A Missing Intrinsic Drive
Entrepreneurs are naturally highly motivated individuals and it can be difficult to deal with employees who do not share this inherent drive. In my experience, it’s important to remember that while you can give employees tools and insights to help them reach the next level, you can’t necessarily solve problems like lack of motivation. – Kevin Markarian, Roopler