Time and time again, I am reminded thatmanaging employees is a lot like taking care of your own children.Just as kids act out, employees who display a bad attitude, sloppywork or poor attendance are nonverbally conveying the message thatthey want your attention.

If you neglect their signals, you will soon lose them from yourteam—and they will take a toll on the rest of your team beforetheir departure.

Think about your office and your employees. Which ones arescreaming for attention? In the past few weeks, I have had twosituations that allowed me to test this theory and in both cases,my theory of “managing my employees like they are my kids” workedlike a charm.

“Sally's” attitude was growing more negative as the days passed.All of us were aware of her constant struggles with the changes wehad implemented. Her computer didn't work, the new system was hard,and she didn't like the new phones.

Her attitude was starting to wear on her fellow team members. Mypartner manages Sally's office and asked me to get involved.

I sent Sally a note and asked her to meet me at a local coffeeshop so I could pick her brain.

As we sat down together, I could sense Sally was nervous. Ibegan by telling her that we valued her as a team member andappreciated the work she'd done for us over the last few years.

Then I asked her what we could do to help her better enjoy herjob, because it was obvious that the changes we'd implemented weremaking her unhappy.

Sally shed a couple of tears, admitted that she was having someissues at home, agreed that she didn't like change, but felt likeshe was coming to terms with the new phones, computers and companyobjectives.

We sat for about an hour and discussed not just business, butthings outside the office.

Sally's attitude changed overnight. Giving her a littleattention was just what she needed. People like Sally need to bereminded how much they mean to the business.

If you have a Sally on your staff, it might be time for a cup ofcoffee at the local coffee shop.

“Brenda” has been with us for a few years. Over time we saw thather attendance had become erratic and her quality of work was notup to par.

One Friday when Brenda was not in the office, our operationsmanager discovered on Brenda's desk some policies that were 60 daysold.

The operations manager called us. It turned out that policies ina locked cabinet also had never been processed.

On Monday when Brenda returned to work, she was instructed thatthe operations manager would be meeting with her at 3 p.m.

Prior to the meeting, my partner and I reviewed theinformation from the operations manager and discussed the approachto our meeting with Brenda.

At the meeting, Brenda was defensive. She said although she wasworking as hard as she could, no matter what she did she was stillfalling behind.

We talked about processes and work flows, and identified a fewthings that might help her. Our operations manager then pulled thepolicies that were found in her desk.

As we reviewed the policies, Brenda pointed out that a few ofthe policies had been processed; she had emailed them to theclient, but simply not had time to mail the hard copy.

Brenda's system was sound, but her process was flawed becauseher documentation was inconsistent.

After that meeting, Brenda's work improved dramatically. Thatlittle bit of attention changed her ability and helped usunderstand that there were a few processing bottlenecks in ourorganization.

Both Sally and Brenda worked in the same division within ourcompany. They performed the same job, but were now both strugglingto keep up with the other divisions.

It became obvious that this division needed another team member.The revenue generated by the division warranted another part-timeemployee who could also help with another division.

This Friday, both Sally and Brenda will be in one of our officestogether, reviewing workflows while informing each other of theirown workflow and software tricks.

We will eventually regroup and have a “family meeting” to shareour plans of adding another team member, which will help Sally andBrenda focus on their best skills: customer service.

We'll be moving the rating and processing functions to our newemployee, mirroring what we do in our other divisions.

Our agency has found that the more we treat your employees likefamily members, the more they reciprocate with quality work and apositive attitude.

As with your family, not everyone will be happy all the time.Keep an eye out for changing behaviors and address them as soon asreasonably possible.

Related: Read “SplittingSales“

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