When Two Employees Cannot Get Along (via @PLANET2005 Front Page News)

I was honored to have the following article be published this week by PLANET in their e-newsletter called “Front Page News” —  To read the article on the PLANET website, please click this link.

When Two Employees Cannot Get Along

By Jason Cupp, Landscape Industry Certified Manager

One of the biggest investments we have as business owners is in our team of employees. Our businesses literally can go from being a success to being a struggle as a result of our team, and it’s often challenging when issues arise within the team.

One of the more frustrating issues to resolve within a team is when two of its members can’t or won’t get along. I know firsthand as I experienced it in my own green industry business. For years, I struggled with how to “solve” the issue, as I knew it affected my business in ways that were immeasurable, including morale, culture, and profits.

Seven years ago, I stumbled upon Kolbe Wisdom™ and the Kolbe A™ Index. The Kolbe A™ Index measures an individual’s natural instincts and where they get energy from, and it does not change over time. It is different from every other “test” available in the marketplace in that it does not measure skill, knowledge, or personality, but instead measures instincts and that natural way someone will complete a task. We used this system to hire, build teams, create efficiencies, and solve team dysfunction.

Now, countless green industry firms have begun to use Kolbe Wisdom™ in their businesses to better understand the instincts of their teams. Since instincts are the way you are “hard wired” and do not change over time, you can build reliable and long-term solutions and problem solving tactics based on those instincts.

It’s amazing what happens when people LOVE what they do and do it naturally. It’s even more amazing when a team begins to affect company culture, team synergy, and profitability as a result of operating within its own natural instincts. I’ve found that those that operate within their natural instincts (I am actually my own case study), get energy from their work, work more efficiently, accomplish more in less time, and never really feel like they are working. Pretty cool, huh?

Now, as a growth consultant, and after becoming Kolbe Certified™, it seems as though my phone rings more often than not with business owners or other managers trying to solve a dysfunction between two employees that work closely together. I received such a call several years ago from a client who I had worked closely with in their business, and who had used Kolbe WisdomTM as a mechanism for hiring, team building, and team synergy.

This business owner had a typical problem that most experience: two employees that work alongside one another in the same department but who could not get along and did not respect each other. We are talking years of arguing and turning the organization upside down on a regular basis. Since I had a Kolbe A™ Index Result on each of the team members, I was called for advice on coaching through this issue.

Upon review of the Kolbe A™ Index Results for these two team members, I found they were instinctive twins. Essentially, they were wired the same way naturally. They had created systems for the same task, did not share those systems with one another, and did not respect that each had the ability to create a great system. Their Kolbe A™ Index Results showed they created systems naturally. It was the classic case of “I can do it better than anyone else.”

Once I worked with them to remind them they were similar to one another, I encouraged them to create those systems together, based on mutual respect for one another. Instead of operating from two separate systems, they created one system, together, that they both had input in, and they documented the system. To this day, several years later, they still use that system. They get along, work much closer together, and most importantly, have mutual respect for one another. I believe we would not have been able to resolve this situation if we did not have a Kolbe A™ Index on each of these employees, and used that information to help solve the problem.

Do you have problem employees, bad hires, employees that can’t get along with one another or whose performance has changed, inefficiencies, procrastination, or frustration about communication and execution? If so, understanding your teams’ natural instincts through Kolbe Wisdom™ could provide you with insight and solutions, and lead to more efficient and effective teams.

Jason Cupp is a Kolbe Certified™ growth consultant who works with clients as a change agent in their businesses using his knowledge and coaching in sales, finance, marketing, social media, team building, and Kolbe Wisdom™. Cupp can be reached at jasoncupp.com or via email to jason AT jasoncupp DOT com.

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