Impact Achievement Group Article Helps New Managers Supervise Difficult Direct Reports

Leadership development firm’s article series on new manager training emphasizes key strategies to grow into management

SEATTLE – September 30, 2010 – New managers and supervisors who don’t know how to handle difficult employees can quickly lose their credibility and effectiveness. A new article by Impact Achievement Group gives new managers tips on effectively interacting with direct reports.

"Supervising Difficult Direct Reports: Tips and Guidance for New Managers," the ninth in a 12-part article series, provides new supervisors with practical tools to address trouble makers and other difficult employees. The articles are derived from Supervisory Basics™, 12 individual yet linked two-hour training modules, delivered in leader-led or eLearning formats that help managers understand the management behaviors and tactics required to ensure their and their company's success.

The article offers insights into the important skills necessary for handling difficult employees, grievances, absenteeism and other problems that inevitably occur with direct reports. The leadership experts at Impact Achievement Group recommend that new managers:

• quickly, decisively address direct reports who try to undermine them or make work more difficult.
• listen carefully to a grievance claim, but then get other points of view—remembering that many times the employee putting forth the grievance is actually part of the problem.
• offer help through their organization’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to employees whose performance is suffering due to outside problems.

"New managers need to deal with these people and situations, not simply hope they will go away on their own," said Lee Klepinger, president of IAG. "Other employees will be watching closely to see how the new supervisor deals with these difficult situations and people, so these are opportunities to establish leadership or to lose credibility."

"Supervising Difficult Direct Reports: Tips and Guidance for New Managers" is available for download. Article 10 in the series will address how to build effective power bases, and use those power bases to effectively and appropriately manage employees.

About Impact Achievement Group

Impact Achievement Group provides assessment, coaching, customer loyalty and leadership development training that focuses on employee selection, retention, employee engagement and customer engagement. By integrating and blending the world's best assessment and recruiting processes, workshops and eLearning training, coaching and measurement programs, Impact Achievement Group helps organizations improve human performance to achieve bottom line results.