Personality in the Workplace: A Management Fairy Tale
by Christine Silver

Once upon a time, a very nice person lost a job because her personality drove clients crazy.

She's sweet and tried hard.  She meant well. She didn't do anything illegal or mean.  She tried to carry out the vision of the organization. In my experience as a management consultant, more often than not managers tolerate a situation like this -- even if there is a negative impact to the business.  As long as an employee is doing the technical end of the job, there isn't much you can do about "how they are."  Right?

Niceness plus trying hard does NOT equal good results.

Managers often avoid giving performance feedback on issues involving behavior because they look at it as a judgment on the employee's personality. A reasonable concern, yes?  Most people report they do not want to sit in judgment of someone else as a unique human being.  However, there is a difference between personality and job-related behavior.  The key to success for a manager is to understand the difference and have tools to address the right issues in the right way at the right time.

How employees conduct themselves at work is the only thing a manager can and should manage.  Job-related behaviors include such things as teamwork, customer/client-service, relationships with management above, relationships with direct reports, safety, etc.  Here's a case study to illustrate:

You have a manager on your team who produces such good results you would have trouble meeting your numbers without her.  The issue you face is others complain that her personality is abrasive and unpleasant.  Employees complain that she is openly critical and belittles them.  You have not experienced this in your interactions with her.  She does most of the work herself and she has the highest turnover of any group in the company.  What do you do?

1. "Have a talk with her" about the high turnover
2. Put her in a job that doesn't manage other people
3. Do nothing because she's producing for the company
4. Give feedback about her interpersonal and management skills and the impact of her actions, set expectations for acceptable behavior, and work out a positive plan of action with her.

If you chose a, b, or c, you would have much in common with managers I've worked with over the years.  These options are the most common yet least effective. 

If personality translates to behavior that impacts the business -- from productivity to people issues -- it has to be addressed as a performance issue (see "d").  These issues rarely address themselves.  You've got to take positive action.

High turnover plus poor morale plus good numbers
does NOT equal good performance.

Here's a formula that works:

• Clearly state what needs to be accomplished in the role with the focus on overall results
• Give employees the space to be individuals and not cardboard cut-outs of the manager
• Set expectations for individual performance with an emphasis on both technical results and job-related behaviors
• Coach them and support them as individuals to do the job well
• Give objective and clear performance feedback (both positive and negative and offer specific examples to illustrate) and do problem solving collaboratively after negative feedback
• Assume employees are intelligent adults and treat them as such

Epilogue to the nice lady who started this:  The manager took some important steps.  He communicated to his employees the vision and direction of the organization.  He set expectations for important areas of performance, from the routine to the finer points of client service.  He met with them regularly and gave relevant and objective performance feedback.  When clients began to complain (or worse, leave without complaining), he asked for details and learned of the effect of the off-putting behavior of this one employee.  He worked with her to turn it around.  The plan didn't work and he let her go.  She found a new job.  She fits it and the new job fits her. 

And they all lived happily ever after... just not together.

Copyright (c) by Christine Silver. All Rights Reserved.