Don't Hire These 2 Types of Difficult Employees
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As a manager, hiring the wrong person will put you in a bad mood. There are a couple of reasons why:
You won’t get the performance you wanted.
You’ll expend extra mental cycles thinking about how to rectify the situation.
You may have to fire this person, which is the farthest thing from adding talent to your team.
I’ve diagnosed two primary categories of difficult employees that you’d want to avoid at all costs, regardless of industry or job function.
Read on to save yourself from repeating these mistakes through your managerial career.
Category 1: Stubborn person with low awareness and poor judgment
What is this and why is this a problem?
Stubbornness is not always bad. Stubbornness can provide persistence and grit on an impossible task. But apply that persistence and grit on the wrong task is just wasted effort.
And that’s what I mean: avoid the stubborn person with poor judgment and low awareness. These direct reports will have a point of view on a topic that’s not correct. However, they are so steadfast in their belief that it will feel near impossible to change their mind.
As a manager, you’ll waste countless hours trying to rectify their poor judgment. And they won’t let go. You’ll be emotionally drained fighting battles with them. Eventually, you’ll find it easier to do the task yourself than to deal with their resistance or their snarky comments that what you’re doing is not correct.
How to identify during the interview
During the interview, folks who fit this category say illogical things.
Keep in mind that differing points of view is fine, but illogical ones are not.
As an interviewer, you must ask a follow-up question to ask them to clarify their illogical statement. If their follow-up answer continues to be illogical, vague, or confusing, then you’ve not only found someone who has poor judgment BUT ALSO low awareness. That is, you, the interviewer pointed out that what they’re saying doesn’t make sense, but they haven’t conceded to your accurate observation.
Candidates who give vague, evasive responses can also come across as not being trustworthy or otherwise hiding information.
Summary
People who fit this category give responses that are:
Illogical
Vague
Evasive
Not straight forward
They also give the impression that they are:
Smarter than others
Can rely on cunning to wiggle out of a difficult situation
Category 2: Gives up easily
What is this and why is this a problem?
This one is self-explanatory. You’re looking to hire to get things done, and these people simply don’t, primarily because they start something and don’t finish.
How to identify during the interview
Candidates who give up easily usually share unimpressive accomplishment stories…because they haven’t tried many projects where they’ve had to persist.
Another way to identify candidates who give up easily is to give the candidate a challenging work simulation. If they fail to complete it, then you’ve found someone who’s not determined.
Summary
People who fit this category have unimpressive accomplishments.
They also tend to give up on challenging work simulation interviews.
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