6-18-2014
The entire team was going through the new training. It was fun to see the light bulbs go on as they were exposed to new knowledge or, in some cases, reminded of important concepts they had forgotten. I tracked the daily assignments and provided coaching; the sellers were engaged and excited ? it was working. The sellers were getting better, their clients were getting better, and I was having a blast being a part of it.
Then he showed up. You know him, he's "That Guy." We all know him at work ? he?s That Guy. That Guy finds a reason to object to anything that is said. No matter how inconsequential the matter, he can?t help but say, ?but?? Here?s a typical script:
Normal Colleague: ?I think the new guy is really getting up to speed quickly.?
That Guy: ?OK, but what do you mean by quickly??
Normal Colleague: ?He just seems to be doing a good job so far.?
That Guy: ?But why shouldn?t he? He?s just doing the easy stuff now.?
Normal Colleague: ?Fine. I?m just saying his work so far has been quite good.?
That Guy: ?Yeah, but what does ?quite good? mean exactly??
Talking to That Guy is painful. The conversation never seems to move ? it?s always stuck. In meetings he?s worse: He objects to the most minor details in presentations, frustrating the presenter and everyone else. His net impact on the meeting is generally negative, and he makes it 15 minutes longer than it needs to be.
Neil Bearden is an Associate Professor of Decision Science at INSEAD, where he teaches and researches judgment. I read his article in Harvard Business Review and learned the word that defines That Guy: captious. To be captious is to raise petty objections.
One of the most gratifying consequences of working with sales teams to improve their performance is the change in the culture that occurs. One manager we work with recently told my partner Chris Lytle, "It's like somebody flipped a switch. Everybody is talking the same language. They are sharing experiences and everybody is performing better."
Nothing is more motivating than achievement. Nothing kills a culture or motivation faster than a captious person. He criticizes everything. His attitude is so negative he would complain if he won a multi-million dollar lottery because he has to pay too much in taxes. That Guy is a problem. He can suck the life and positive energy out of a team ? if you let him.
The That Guy I was dealing with was complaining that he was new, so he wasn't dealing with any great accounts. He couldn't grasp the concept of doing the work before getting paid. To his credit, he recognized that his attitude was bad and asked if we could help motivate him. Honestly, I'm not sure I've ever witnessed a That Guy so bad, so early in his career. I found myself thinking, ?Why is he in sales if he feels this way?? I encouraged his manager to have a conversation with him and find out what was going on. I suggested that if she couldn't get to the root cause of his attitude and help him make immediate and dramatic change, that she would be best served helping him find a new career path.
When dealing with That Guy you need to find a way to turn him on to what you are trying to accomplish. . . or cut him loose. The key is don't waste time. It's not just the money you?re wasting on him, it's the negative impact he?s having on the rest of the team. The clich? is right, "one bad apple can spoil the bushel." You owe it to your team to protect them from rotten apples.
Jeff Schmidt is EVP and Partner with Chris Lytle at Sparque, Inc. You can reach him at Jeff.Schmidt@Sparque.biz
Twitter: @JeffreyASchmidt
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/schmidtjeffrey
(6/18/2014 8:11:42 AM)
When I was being trained to do coaching and counselling, Jeff, I was taught about motivation strategies. One set was: "Towards" and "Away From" - both useful in some context.
The key for "Those Guys" is to point out which one they are applying and that your environment is (at the time) one that requires a reversal from one to the other with an "Away From" mode to be applied later - to be prepared for slip-ups or missing information.
Instead of being shut down, they now have access to both. They like that.
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