7 Ways to Deal With Employees Who Don't Listen

Having to deal with employees who don’t listen is so frustrating. Being ignored at work is never nice at the best of times and if you have to deal with employees who don’t listen it can knock your confidence, impact the team overall and can certainly create negative feelings that help no-one.
I share 7 ways to tackle employees who don’t listen, and each is effective. Don’t allow team members who don’t listen to remain an annoyance, a hindrance and a source of disruption for the team any longer.
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Matching your communication style to their learning style is a sensible step which will help them take in what you are saying. Make it as easy for the employee who doesn’t listen as possible.
Next take a look at your own behaviour. Are you listening to them? Are you acting on what they are telling you? Are you asking them to undertake activities which help the team and them. Treat them as you would like to be treated and you have a much higher chance of being listened to.
Explain the why. Why are you asking the employee to do the task you are? Have you explained this to them? And when you are being ignored at work, explain the impact of the other person not listen and not doing.
If you are still not being listened to at work, then ask the employee to give you a summary of what you have asked and also ask for their input. This is a great way to get them involved and forces them to take in and think about what you have asked.
A further step is providing the employee who doesn’t listen with a set of options and ask them to decide which one should be pursued.
Whatever you mutually agree, put the actions and activities which the goals in writing. This provides a clear reference point for both parties.
And lastly, create consequences if the team member doesn’t listen and doesn’t take action.
Don’t allow an employee to not listen to you, particularly if the team output will suffer. Take any of the 7 ways outlined to deal with employees who don’t listen.
00:00 Intro
01:19 Match your communication style
02:15 Take a look at your own behaviour
03:35 Highlight the why and the impact
04:30 Ask for a summary and input
05:29 Ask them to make a decision
06:46 Put what is agreed in writing and follow up
07:50 Create consequences
08:36 In Summary
Other videos that you will find useful:
How To Deal With An Underperforming Team Member • How to Deal With Under...
5 Steps to Manage Difficult Employees • 5 Steps to Manage Diff...
How to Manage Difficult Conversations At Work • How To Manage Difficul...
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.
Jess Coles
enhance.training

[@Enhancetraining]

There is a FREE summary infographic of each step to deal with employees who don't listen available to download here: enhance.training/lm-lp/dont-listen-infographic-290467/

[@bouquet_vis3012]

Hello Jess Coles, Thank you very much for your video. I just had a chance to work with my family business right after my graduation. I was not entitled to any position in the company rather than a helper with emailing the client. The reason why I got to work is that there was a situation where my father felt that it was too much for the old employee to handle as she had a problem with language so he let me jump in and from that I become working part-time there to talk to clients. Supposedly there was an employee who worked in this job but after I jump in I realize that she just did work badly because she had a mindset that I will correct them anyway. I feel that I become her boss even though I am not and start to be really micro-managing asking her to check the information again and again before sending it to me. I had try my best to talk to her nicely but I feel that she does not respect me at all. Just a while ago she just suddenly hung up my call. In this situation what should I do to gain her respect and to kindly ask her to do her job properly. Thank you very much for your video and I am looking forward to hearing from you. Best regards

[@Enhancetraining]

Thnaks for you discription of the situation. I have a few questions for you to think through which might help you. What do you think she is doing well in her job? How many times have you complimented her on what was going well? How would you feel if you were asked to "check the information again and again"? Would she say that you respect her with your actions? She may not be great a the aspects of her job that you highlight yet I imagine with all her experience she will be good at other things. If you want to be respected by her, then how are you going to find things that you respect and admire about her and how are you going to show that? She would then be more receptive to your comments aimed at improving what she does. If you are able to alter your mindset and try this approach, I suspect you will get better results from her. Good luck. J

[@DaveTalksBusiness]

I always replace the word ‘I’ with “the company”. “The company” has these expectations. “The company” is expected to have these things ready for the customers. It depersonalizes it and that's where a lot of the emotion and the emotional response comes from your staff and customers. Many business owners are overly verbal too! We can't hold employees accountable for a policy that doesn't physically exist. We can't hold them accountable to an SOP that doesn't physically exist. Get things written down to avoid hearing “you never told me that”. Also ask them; Can you do that now or do you need an hour to do that? It's a great question - and then you're getting a verbal commitment when they respond!

[@Enhancetraining]

Hi Dave, thanks for your comments. Some useful tips to try. I would be careful in overusing "the company" in a conversation as it also takes away any stake/responsibility you have in the requests you are making. If you don't believe in what you are asking why should they? Like all things in management - a careful balancing act. I 100% agree that you can't hold a person accountable to targets that don't exist and writing them down is pretty essential as you point out.

[@FixnGoLLC]

Thanks for the video, I do have difficult employees, I blame myself I had not reprimanded them before but it came to the point that they won’t even show up for work sometimes, times are hard, I can’t fire them, but how do I mutually fix this issue? I’m in a tough situation, need help, I’m worried I may lose the grid and confidence between other employees.

[@Enhancetraining]

It seems that your situation has limited options. Having options such as recruiting (or being able to recruit) different staff will enable you set expectations with staff members and be able to create consequences for them if they don't meet them. If you can't fire them, what other less drastic consequences can you create that will show the rest of the team that you are trying to deal with the difficutl employees? Employing peer pressure with attendance charts (or more useful metrices) on the wall, honest feedback to the individuals (starting late is better than not starting) and similar can help. Do you have anyone else you can get support from that knows your situation?

[@Joaquinonbasstheelectriklovein]

you wont find help from this guy's video.

[@yipirinya1]

Da

[@jonsnow899]

I cannot believe you actually said, "If you [manager] don't listen to your team members why should they listen to you?" Because I am paying the team members. That is why they should listen. They are able to purchase food because I pay them, so when I have something to say they should listen. When team members can pay their own bills without me then they can choose to listen or not.

[@Enhancetraining]

@jonsnow899 You raise a really good point. Every job pays money. Money itself is not really a big differentiating factor - some jobs will pay slightly more some slight less and most people can go get another job (even if the process is painful). When all you are offering is money, staff will typically do the minimum they need to keep their jobs. What is a lot rarer is a manager who listens, who cares and who uses the full skills and experience of their team. These managers inspire their staff to WANT to do the best they can. You get a big jump in team performance with staff wanting to do their best, which in turn is great news personally for the manager. J

[@MaGSteelX]

I know why the team member is not listening to me. We use to work together at a similar job in the same position and now at a different company I'm a manager and he is not! He can't see past the last company added on he doesn't take to authority well.

[@Enhancetraining]

It is tough to be managing past peers. The dynamics of the relationship have to be changed carefully. What can you do to help him and build the trust that being managed by you is a benefit to him personally? An option to think about. J

[@Joaquinonbasstheelectriklovein]

Look I've had employees try to turn situations around & try to make it MY problem why they don't do their job.What's in it for them?That they don't get fired.Jeez I can't listen to this stuff anymore.I'll be glad when the robots take over.Enough of this B.S..

[@Enhancetraining]

If you have a queue of people wanting to work for you, then the approach you mention at is one way of managing the team. What happens when you don't have a queue of people wanting to work at your business? And will the people you keep be at the better or worse end of spectrum?

[@charlesg7926]

@@Enhancetraining that’s where the government comes in. The government needs to stop rewarding people for this kind of communist behavior. There should not be unemployment for anybody that doesn’t want to work. When people know they can get money from the government for free, then, it’s no longer an equal and balanced exchange between the employer and the employee. Yes, people should be able to compete between other companies. But the problem is now, a lot of employees feel like they can just stop working entirely and collect unemployment. That makes people extremely lazy and entitled. Often they’ll have unrealistic standards and high list of wild demands, because lowkey they just wanna collect a check

[@MKrealife]

Can anybody give me advice on training a know it all? I hate being told to train someone who attempts to train me. So annoying. I just get frustrated and tell my supervisor that I can't train them.

[@Enhancetraining]

@user-je6pn9pr3h - I would go with asking questions rather than trying to tell them. Ask them what they would do in x situation, or the right way to approach y problem. Asking questions should expose the holes in their knowledge and make them more receptive to you explaining what they should do. If they really do know what they are talking about, you could always get them involved in training others.

[@thomaslindsay4803]

The management at co-op in Channel Islands is bad they keep saying things to me last minute it’s kinda impact my mental health feel like quitting this place

[@Enhancetraining]

Do you feel comfortable enough to give the management team feedback? They might not fully realise the impact their actions are having. If you are thinking of leaving you have little to lose and you might gain quite a bit. Just a thought.

[@booradley0x0]

I just want to fire them. Hire someone competent. End of story.

[@Enhancetraining]

There is a lot of hassle in firing and hiring. Sometimes it is absolutely the best solution. From experience, getting improvement from people is quicker and cheaper than fire and hire and a lot of the time (but not always) better for the team.