"Sujansky Says" EZINE Archives

Executive Summary

Every organization has at least one bad apple. You know, the employee who drags down coworker morale with his or her horrific attitude, or the employee whose absence transforms an office of formerly solitary cubicle hermits into a place where people productively work together to get extraordinary results. It’s likely that everyone subjected to your bad apple would be glad to see him or her gone. And they’re right – keeping a bad apple around not only assures continued sub-par behavior or performance, it also risks spoiling the whole barrel! Contagious low morale has a tendency to creep through the office and demolish productivity.

So, toss the bad apple!

Seems simple, right? But what about the employee whose personality sends everyone’s collective blood pressure through the roof, yet produces some of the best work in the office? Or the one who sweet-talks angry bosses out of taking disciplinary action, only to keep up the bad work? To find out how to deal with bad apples and how to present those from spoiling your organization go to http://www.keygroupconsulting.com/articles/badapples.htm.

Five Things You Can Do About Your Bad Apple

Stop Passing the Buck – Some companies are OK with turning a blind eye to managers simply shuffling bad apples from one department to another. Make sure yours isn’t one of them.
Stop Passing the Buck (Take 2!) – Other times, managers expect the employees to fix the problem for themselves, but team members rarely feel empowered enough to make these kinds of decisions. This problem can be attacked from both ends: encouraging managers to deal with these problems and providing employees with the skills to productively confront their peers.
Shut Down Smooth Talkers – Your bad apples may be better at manipulating others to think well of them than they are at actually doing work. Stick to your guns and address issues when they first arise, otherwise you’ll be dealing with the same problems over and over again.
Let Go of Your Fear – In this day and age, everyone’s afraid of getting sued. But you can eliminate that fear as long as you mind your p’s and q’s through consultation with legal or HR counsel, daily coaching of the bad apple and use of the progressive discipline process, if necessary.
Get Over the Guilt – Telling someone that they no longer have a job is no easy job itself. But if your bad apple is still sour after coaching and the last resort -- progressive discipline process – then there isn’t much else you can do besides let him or her go – unless you would like to see the whole organization suffer instead.

Learn to curb bad apple performance before it rots. My Progressive Discipline e-book will help you to follow the right steps to turn performance around.

Conducting effective discipline sessions is both an art and a science. I’ll guide you to determine where you can compromise . . . and where you can’t.
Learn when and how to use three steps of disciplinary action:

Give a written warning.
Suspend an employee without pay for a designated span of time.
Dismiss the employee.

Every case is different, every person is distinct, and most every workplace culture is unique. Go to www.HowToDisciplineAnEmployee.com to learn more and to purchase your e-book

To learn more about how you can create a Vibrant Entrepreneurial Organization contact KEYGroup® at 724-942-7900 or visitour websites www.keygroupconsulting.com and www.joannesujansky.com.