Who should you train when you have a problem person?

Hint - it's not the problem person

I provide behavioral based harassment training. Most of my customers find me because they are looking for a real solution to their problems.

Often - they will tell me that they have a problem person and they are hoping that I can train this person - to not be a problem anymore. In other words - we don't want to train everyone - we just want you to fix this one particular employee. 

I don't want to name names - but sometimes these situations blow up and I read about them in the paper - or see them on the news.  This usually happens when they are vague and say - we;d like to you to do a "pilot" project in this one store - but the manager of that store - isn't actually on board with the training. Then it blows up and - I realize why.  Some of these incidents have been very high profile too.

So - let me help you out. If you have a problem employee - YOU need to learn how to help them. The problem employee isn't interested in a training and any training you give them - will just annoy them - and not convince them to change. 

It isn't that they aren't capable of change - it's more that - the way they are works for them so they don't see the point. The problem person doesn't have a problem. The people who have to work with the problem person - have the problem.

To fix this - you need to teach the people who are dealing with the problem - HOW to deal with it effectively. You should be training - everyone around the problem person. Help them. Focusing on fixing the problem person - isn't going to work. Teaching the people who have to deal with the problem person - how to make them stop - will.

With a behavioral problem in particular - the people around the person who is problematic - need to learn how to redirect the negative behavior. How to reward the good behavior and provide consequences for the bad behavior. Basically - you need to teach everyone else - how to train the problem person to behave better.  And everyone needs to be on board with the strategy too - because - if they aren't - it's not going to work.

My advice - if you have a problem person - is take my training. Learn what has to happen to fix it. Then come up with a strategy on how to deal with it. It may be that your best course of action is to fire the person. But then again - it might not.

I cannot help you though - if you don't want to learn what actually works so that you can fix it. If you are just trying to offload the problem for someone else to fix - you are never going to fix it.

So stop trying to shift responsibility. If you have a problem person - learn how to deal with them effectively. Train yourself first. https://humanistlearning.com/category/bullyingharassment/

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