Dealing with ‘difficult’ or ‘problematic’ colleagues, whether they are your direct reports, peers, or even your boss, is draining and exhausting. As leaders, it can feel like the majority of our time is spent on just a few people. And typically it is the staff/projects that we don’t want to spend time which makes the whole thing even more draining. What if I told you that if we invest a small amount of time upfront, this problem can be removed? If instead of managing performance you managed motivation you could remove the burden of dealing with that ‘difficult’ person and instead have them show up as yet another great employee? This is possible – we just need to approach the issue differently.

‘I didn’t do any real work today!’ Sound familiar?
A day of 5 meetings, then just a few hours in between catching up on emails and some management admin, and the day is gone. By the end of the week you feel like every day has just gone by in a blur and you haven’t touched a line of technical work. You have become a blocker for your team and you know you aren’t doing the technical work you promised. Worse still, if you have recognised you don’t have time for the technical stuff and have started to give it up and delegate it you feel inadequate and that you don’t contribute anything meaningful. You’ve become that manager. Sound familiar?