As I sat at my desk browsing LinkedIn, I came across a Slideshare that was funny and clever and made me laugh out loud. It was about people who complain at work but let me tell you, for Managers, complainers are not fun. Complainers at work can suck the positive energy out of a team and bring morale down in a flash. This is where it is essential for good Sales Management to step in. Here are 6 strategies that I have personally used to refocus complainers at work to get them back on track:
- Let them vent. Set up a meeting with your complainers and let them tell you their perspectives about everything that’s wrong with the job. Let them vent about their frustrations and write their complaints down on your whiteboard. Review their complaints and ask the complainers to prioritize the most important issues. Let them know that you believe that there is a solution to every problem (which there is) and you will work with them to resolve the issues to the best of your ability.
- Select the top 2-3 issues and create task forces to address these issues. Each task force should be comprised of a group of 3-5 team members. Give the complainers at work a leadership role on some or all of the task forces. The goal of the task force is to brainstorm to find a solution. After the brainstorm session, weed out the ideas that aren’t viable and build a plan around the viable solutions. Present the solutions to the senior executives who, ultimately, will need to approve the plan.
- Tell your team to bring their complaints and solutions to you. Once your team sees that you are open to finding solutions to their issues (perhaps you’ll need to run several task forces to build trust), let your team know that you will listen to their complaints and work with the team to find workable solutions.
- Create a solutions board. Set up a whiteboard in the team area. This board is a place for team members to outline issues and possible solutions. Once a week, meet your team at the board and review issues and solutions. Prioritize the issues and create a plan (and maybe a task force) to resolve the issues.
- Personal complaints need HR support. If your team member is spreading rumors, gossiping about others, or is randomly ranting about unspecified “things,” I recommend that you work with HR to come up with some team building exercises to rebuild morale. When people meet outside of the office, they may gain a new perspective about the people or person that they think they dislike. Set an example of respect and make sure that you respect every team member and show it. Make it clear that every team member is to be treated with respect and dignity.
- Hold a team appreciation day. Set aside one day where everyone on the team is appreciated. During the appreciation day, get a big thank you card for each team member. Pass the cards around so that everyone can write statements of appreciation for each team member. If you have 5 team members, you’ll need 5 cards, for example. At the end of the day, each person gets their card. Each person has to think of a positive aspect to write about each team member so once team members receive their cards, they will understand that they are appreciated. This is a very powerful exercise and I have seen amazing results while applying this process.
If the complainers at work are under-performers, take time to provide additional training and support. It is the Manager’s job to help team members meet performance objectives, so ask them to outline where they feel like they need support to grow and provide them with constructive feedback. Good Sales Management means realizing that sometimes complainers need more attention. The additional training and support will help them to be more effective. With this approach, their complaints may decrease as their performance improves. If you work with your team and give them opportunities to find solutions, your complainers will feel valued and see fewer reasons to complain. We are all just people and you need these people (your team) to meet your objectives. In short, “you are all in this together.” Value your team and they will value you and the job!
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