“One in two (50%) people state that they’ve left a job at some point to get away from a bad manager”
Edmonton, winter, a few years ago. It was c-o-l-d. I was in front of a group of around 60 managers and team leads, taking them through a session titled ‘How to Handle Difficult Employees’ as requested by the business.
After the intros and some discussion, I wanted to get to the heart of it and hear what they had to say. I split them up into smaller groups and tasked them to come up with, exactly how would they describe a difficult employee and what is the challenge in dealing with the situation?
Themes emerged from the groups, including not knowing how to approach the situation and concern over upsetting the other person (that’s a whole other ball of wax!), when it struck me to ask a question.
‘How many of you don’t really like managing other people?’

I put my hand in the air – I wanted them to feel it was OK to admit it!
The room went silent, sometimes silence in a training room signifies attendees closing up, but I’d already made it a safe environment for them to share. After around 10 seconds, a hand slowly raised from one of the tables. Then another, then another, then another.
After around 30 seconds there were around 10% of the room with their hands up.
This shifted entirely where we went next. As a question thrown flippantly out into the group it highlighted something important – some people get in to management roles because a) they are good at what they do so the business promotes them to managing others, b) they think it’s the path to career success and not many people turn down a promotion.
The original session changed direction immediately after this – I go where the room needs to go. We shifted into a deeper introspection about what each person thinks management is and why (or why not) they want to do it.
It was as though we hit a reset button
We discussed how it feels to be managed by someone who isn’t really invested in it; and as people started to connect their ‘why I want to be a manager’ to their current experience all but two of the people who put their hands up realised they liked the friendly side of managing but not the ‘icky and difficult’ parts.
I continued working with this group and the company saw the needle shift for them, and the two people who really did not want to manage others – went on to become incredibly good as sole contributors in the business.
This whole session changed how we offer Manager and Leader training, we always start now with a session exploring the why.
Because for those leading and managing others in your business, the first rung on the ladder is for your managers and leaders to actually enjoy the aspect of growing, influencing, and guiding others, at the very least.
For more info on sessions to engage your managers and leaders, contact us now!
Contact us on the website: https://www.beabetteryou.ca/contact
or by email: sharon@beabetteryou.ca
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