How to find an angry employee

Do you have an angry employee at work? Do you know how to figure out one? Well here are the quickies to start with and with your help we can build a good list here, of course we can then use the list to figure out the reasons and also find answers and solutions to them but let's say that these symptoms don't need to be merely due to conflicts they can also be due to pure unhappiness, unwillingness to co-operate etc, but it's a good start to build one...

usually these symptoms range as :

1.Not completing work on-time

2. Gossiping about work, company, office, Boss, colleagues

3. Not responding to phone / emails / aggressive in language and tone if replied

4. Avoiding the morning wishes and day end see off to colleagues, team members, Bosses

5. Trying to find excuses on behavioral changes

6. Hoarding information that should be shared

7. Complaining , whining

8. Blaming others for their acts, sometimes openly, sometimes in groups

9. Verbal abuse

10. Not attending required meetings, popping up late

11. Uncalled expressions

12. Absenteeism

13. Physical violence

There can be many more small things but they fit into one or the other of them. The type of behaviour an angry employee pick also signifies the mode and nature of conflict/issues. So do you see any angry colleagues? How can it be reasoned out? How can it be solved? How do you turn your angry mates love you? Well a part of the series that I started at How to get loved by your Team can be used in building this solution... So what more do you see?

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Team Engagement - 10 ways to get loved by your Team - 3/10 Inspire Them

Sachin Tendulkar the legendary cricketer was inspired by Kapil Dev the Indian cricket Team captain who won the 1983 world cup for India, this was when he was just learning to walk. Behind every legendary man/women there is a short inspiring story, this story plays a crucial role in the lives of these legends and thus make them legendary.

Your team always look at you with very high regards, yes they idealise you, they see you as their inspiration.. no matter what you do when you begin with your team, you begin as a inspirational part of their lives. However busy in the day to day routines you forget to inspire them in spite of being inspirational...Every Team member is like a hot iron rod if several other iron rods put pressure on it, it may not take the right shape, but when the hammer puts force it may(The hammer has to take care that it applies the right pressure and not force). And surely if the iron bar takes the right shape, it is going to love you for it....

Every member of your Team holds some exclusive quality within, if you can find that out and give way to it so the team member can do something of it, is he not going to love you for helping him expose and liberate his talent? There are different ways to inspire... Some people let others do what they want to others do things that can inspire else do it too. Everything and anything that you or your team does can inspire one or the other member of your team, you just have to use the right way to present it...

A few ways to inspire your teams:

I always think there is active inspiring and passive inspiring

Active inspiring

1. If you have found something very interesting or innovative on the web world

a. Speak about it in front of your teams

b. Tell them the benefits , usage and some good points of it

c. Show them how to use it, how you use it

d. Promote to get it used

e. Ask them ideas on how it can help the teams

2. If you know certain talents of your team members

a. Speak about those topics with them

b. Discuss pros and cons with them

c. Discuss legends, stories , success stories of people in the area of interest

d. Refer them to sites, people who you know in the same field

e. Share experiences

3. Creating a forum and debating on the topics of like

a. Create a forum where a lot of people can come together and discuss things. This will help your teams take a deeper dive into things

Inspiring Passively

1. Put a note or a symbol that can be seen.. Knowing some of the developers who were interested in blogging I made a point that I put my IM status message to my blog link, only later I realised that with every change in the status I had majority of them visiting the link. You don’t need to speak, if they are interested they will find a way to do it.

2. Create curiosity by not talking much about it.. sometimes less talking does more thinking.. speak once about it and let others to explore

3. Let them overhear – When the topics of discussion are interesting to others.. let them overhear.. they will go back and find details about it, would go and take it more further.

Yes.. Inspiring your team is something you would want to do.. Because if you can inspire them, you will find that they can do more then just getting inspired.. In turn to bring some good to them, they are going to love you.

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Team Engagement - 10 ways to get loved by your Team - 2/10 Just Be there

Team engagement, doesnt it get trickier as you go on doing it? But doesnt it ease up so many things when you do it? I have known companies spending thousands and thousands of bucks on this one thing, involving people , places and dont know what not... Success in Team engagement is however limited unless that Attitude and Culture is evolved....

Now coming to our next element.... take this situation:

Its 1 in the night actually early morning, you have 4 members from your team working on a very critical issue that has to make the production tomorrow morning, you have no onsite support available. You assign the issue and you leave for the day. You call your team member in the middle of the night or he calls you and updates you that the fix is done. All goes well.

Same scene.. the fix is not done.. what is your reaction now? you organize a call with stake holders, you shout , you yell, you are upset? you reschedule the fix and ask for another day, come to the office and ask them to be there to give you an explanation? firefight, issue resolved but did something go wrong here? The feeling in the Team????

Now same scene.... You are with the Team all the time, discussing solutions, evaluating options, the fix is done and all goes well.

Same scene again but the fix is not done? What will you do now? Since you have a complete understanding of what the team has done so far and what you have being doing all this while.. you can set a correct expectation?

Yes... sometimes you may not be the Technical expert, You may not add any value being with the Team while they are working hard on something.. sometimes it is important just to be there, facilitate things for them, try to check on their needs and try to remove there blockers so they can work well. Its a morale support to the Team... they know who to go back to when you are there. Now if they can depend on you for this, Aren't they surely going to love you?

Today we did a release, one of the fellow colleagues asked me "It is OK if you are not in, we could have taken care of it" I said "No worries, I just like to stick around" a few minutes later the same colleague was stuck with a issue and needed some help from me to reset some user details. I reminded the colleague "When you lead a Team, make sure you are there for the Team, you never know what will come up and when you will be needed" ....

You must have come in this situations very often... Your Team would be working day , night , late hours, weekends... if they see you around with a motive of helping them out... They are going to like it.

A few things to remember and do while you are JUST THERE for the Team

1. Make an arrangement for a quick Pizza grab if they are working late or weekends

2. Give them a ride home if it is late in the night.

3. Ask them about if they need any help occasionally.

4. Get them short breaks if they are working late.. this would release them from some pressures.

5. Do some petty tasks for them... like random tests to help them, or builds, or deploys that can save them some time

6. Get them a coffee on their desk... they may like it

7. A quick shoulder massage... of course for male colleagues is not a bad idea.

8. Appreciate their effort....

Do not

1. Be there to do a status check

2. Do not give a feeling or be there to monitor the activities.

Both of this is showing distrust.

Another small thing... But this can really help making life of Team members and Leads easier... a low cost item that can improve the leads level of engagement with the Team.. Now ask yourself ....On when you were present when your Team needed you the most...

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