Deal Effectively with Employee's Anger

Q: How do you approach employees who are top performers but need improvement about their interpersonal skills? For instance, an employee I have is a superb construction professional in terms of his skills but has problem with anger management. And, as anyone knows who has spent time on a construction site, tempers can flare easily during the normal course of the day.
I want to correct this problem but don't want to get him upset at me or lose morale because he is otherwise a high performer.

A: Your question leads to another question. Do you have a policy of annual performance reviews within your company?

If not, start one immediately. This situation would be just one of a number of standard components within such a review including such things as communications, productivity, attendance and ability to work with others.

With a regular performance review process, interpersonal skills are just one component of an overall annual assessment of each person's contributions to the success of the company.

If increases and bonuses are paid at the end of your fiscal year, for example in December, a performance review that occurs in June or July is an effective tool to work towards a remedy. Each employee then has a six month window to show some improvement in dealing with your areas of concern prior to any tangible compensation for improved performance.

Interpersonal skills improvements normally require more than initial encouragement, a one-time admonition or reading a book.

Time Solves Problem

As with the performance review process, leave enough time between the initial meeting and any tangible reward for some progress to be made. A series of incremental changes are necessary to make changes over the long haul that will benefit both the individual and those impacted by his or her actions.

The first step is agreement that interpersonal skills are a problem.

If the person cannot see the plank in his or her eye and not perceive any need to change, you have not completed this first step toward resolution. Open, frank dialog between you and the impacted individual related to the specific problems being created by the anger problem and agreement that improvement must be made is critical to success.

After reaching this agreement, a series of improvement steps can be mapped out by you and your employee.

Regular coaching sessions with either yourself or a professional coach/counselor at regular intervals are the best way to move this process forward. Conversations about the causes and reasons for the angry outbursts, coaching and sharing information related to better conflict resolution models and practice sessions can result in better behaviors at the point of conflict.

Periodic discussions between you, the employee and others in the work team related to any improvements can help you keep the process on track.

Helping your employees to see themselves as others see them is an important step in team building and the improvement plan for each individual member of your firm. Managing this process in a non-judgmental, open, candid manner is the key to success.

Do you have questions on construction human resources or safety?
E-mail them to Leonard Toenjes at ltoenjes@agcstl.org or
craig_barner@mcgraw-hill.com.

(If Len picks your question,
he will answer it in a future issue of Midwest Construction.)