The faster you manage the issues around an unjeller, or any other team membership problem, the faster the team will thank you. Normally, the way a manager will help the team is by meta-coaching or meta-feedback, helping the team members learn to coach or learn to give feedback themselves. But if the problem is too big for team members to handle by themselves, the manager has to manage it.
When you don’t try to save someone for too long, when you help an employee move out of a team—especially one who is an unjeller like Frieda—you help the team. Team members will become more energized, happier, and freer. And their output will increase. Why? Because the unjeller is not preventing them from collaborating.
Luck Helps
You want to help an employee exit gracefully. If you are part of a large organization, and there is another place for your employee, help your employee transfer. But don’t make your headache someone else’s headache. I’ve interviewed people who had twenty years of the same year of experience because their managers handed them off and the company was large enough. No manager ever took the courageous effort of helping the employee out the door.
If you are lucky, and you have checked with your colleagues at your competitors, you might be able to find a place for your employee at another organization. Even if you cannot, help your employee leave.
Not every employee is salvageable at your organization. It’s almost always a case of cultural fit. You can prevent these problems by discovering them during hiring. But if you don’t discover them during hiring, make sure you don’t let these problems fester. As soon as you discover them, provide the employee feedback. If that doesn’t work, help your problem employee out the door. Your headaches will go away, and your team will thank you.
Read all of Johanna's Management Myths here:
- The Myth of 100% Utilization
- Only the 'Expert' Can Perform This Work
- We Must Treat Everyone the Same Way
- I Don't Need One-on-Ones
- We Must Have an Objective Ranking System
- I Can Save Everyone
- I Am Too Valuable to Take a Vacation
- I Can Still Do Significant Technical Work
- We Have No Time for Training
- I Can Measure the Work by the Time People Spend at Work
- The Team Needs a Cheerleader!
- I Must Promote the Best Technical Person to Be a Manager
- I Must Never Admit My Mistakes
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About the author
Johanna Rothman, known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” helps organizational leaders see problems and risks in their product development. She helps them recognize potential “gotchas,” seize opportunities, and remove impediments. Johanna was the Agile 2009 conference chair. She is the technical editor for Agile Connection and the author of these books:
- Manage Your Job Search
- Hiring Geeks That Fit
- Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects
- The 2008 Jolt Productivity award-winning Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management
- Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management
- Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People
Johanna is working on a book about agile program management. She writes columns for Stickyminds.com and projectmanagementcom and blogs on her website, jrothman.com, as well on createadaptablelife.com.
