Tired of Employee Excuses?

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses!

By: Kelly Ketelboeter

If you’re a coach then you have probably heard every excuse in the book.  It can be challenging to be a working manager and have to deal with your employees who seem to complain about everything and anything.  Can’t we all just get along and do our jobs? Yeah right! Anytime there is change within your company our human nature kicks in and there’s a tendency to defend the current way of doing things.  This is because as humans we want to be as comfortable as possible and change tends to make us very uncomfortable.  We also tend to fear the unknown which also creates resistance among our employees.  Take the fear of the unknown and discomfort and what you usually will get is excuses or what we call phantom resistance.

How we deal with employee resistance and the excuses that come along with that has a huge impact on our team and the company’s overall success.  The cruise director coach may tend to excuse the employee excuses because it’s tough to confront them.  Instead they will hope that it just goes away on its own. We know that doesn’t happen and it’s not quite that easy. The militant coach would simply say, “Build a bridge and get over it already because this is what we are doing.” Anytime we are told we have to do something our human nature kicks in again and our first response is usually, “bite me!”  Employees don’t usually like being told what to do.  Instead they like to be included and feel validated.  Ignoring excuses or forcing change without responding productively can have a negative impact on the team and your culture.  Instead of responding as the cruise director or militant coach what we want to do is pull a few plays from the effective coaches play book and work through the excuses with employees.

The effective coach believes that part of her job is to engage the staff in conversations about performance, concerns in achieving performance and the excuses that inevitably follow as we attempt to change or improve behavior.  Keep in mind human nature is to fear the unknown.  One way to change that human nature is to make the “unknown” known to the employees.  The effective coach does this by communicating changes effectively to employees. She answers all the burning questions before they are asked to help gain buy-in and get the employees moving in the right direction.  Communicating what is happening, why it is happening, when it is going to happen, and how it is going to happen along with how it will impact the employees, customers and the company is a good place to start. Communication is a key ingredient to get folks to change the way they are behaving or working currently.  With that being said just because you communicate these things doesn’t mean the excuses will become non-existent. Come on, it’s not that easy!! So we still need to know how to deal with them.

As I think about dealing with employee resistance I am reminded how much it mirrors dealing with customer resistance or objections we may get or even resistance we get from spouses, kids or family members.  Customers object to products and services when they don’t see the benefits or when they don’t have enough information to make an informed decision.  We know when a customer objects or shows resistance that it is actually a sign of interest.  We also know that we have to address the customer’s objection otherwise we are essentially telling them we don’t care and they are right, our product or service won’t help them.  Employees feel the same way as our customers when they give an excuse.  It’s an objection that comes from not seeing the benefits or not having enough valid information to create and accept the discomfort that comes with change.  As with customers if we ignore employee resistance or excuses they will think we don’t care and that we agree with what they are thinking.  This just creates even more problems down the road.  Instead we have to deal with it head on like we would a customer objection.  When overcoming objections we train employees to use four key skills, listen, ask questions, use empathy and sell the benefits.  The effective coach takes this same approach to successfully address employee excuses.  Let’s take a closer look at the three skills involved in overcoming excuses and resistance from employees.

1.  Listen

A lot of us think we are good listeners.  In all reality we are often distracted or we are thinking about what we are going to say in response.  Focus on the employee and really listen to what they are saying.  It will help you gain greater perspective into the employees thinking and the excuse itself.  Revisit effective listening tips, we can all use a tune up every now and again!

2.  Ask questions.

Asking questions will allow you to really clarify the issue at hand and will engage the employee in the discussion.  The key is to focus on asking open-ended questions.  This forces the employee to really think about their excuses instead of just throwing them out there to watch you squirm.

Asking questions will allow you to get at the root of the excuse.  And what you may find is the employee is just saying things in hopes to make you, the coach, go away and/or to make the changes stop.

3.  Use empathy.

Empathy is a communication technique that will show the employee you are listening and you care.  When empathizing, put yourself in the employee’s shoes and ask yourself “How are they feeling and why are they feeling this way?”  When you empathize it doesn’t mean you agree with or even disagree with how the employee is feeling and why, it simply means you recognize where they are at.

4.  Sell the benefits.

Just like customers need a reason to act on our suggestions so do employees’.  An effective coach will communicate the benefits for the changes and expectations by telling the employee what’s in it for them and/or the customer.  We can start selling the benefits by focusing on your company mission, vision and expectations.  The effective coach will also tap into the things that motivate the employee they are dealing with.  Is the employee motivated by helping the customers? Are they motivated by their performance evaluations? Are they motivated by recognition and positive reinforcement?  You have to know what motivates your employees and then use that information to unlock their potential and overcome excuses.

Keep in mind when an employee is feeding you line after line of excuses they are really saying, “I’m not comfortable. I don’t fully understand. And I don’t see what’s in it for me.”  Using the four skills outlined above will help you work through and overcome any excuse they throw your way. You can use all four skills together or you may just use one or two of them to help you, help the employee.  The key is to stay cool and create a dialog between you and the employee so the excuse doesn’t go unaddressed.

Of course the more you practice overcoming the excuses the easier it will be to face them head on.  I encourage you to work on your own or with other managers to list every excuse you have ever heard and then work through overcoming them by using the skills outlined above.  As someone once told me at the end of the day, excuses don’t change results. So start getting results by dealing with the excuses. Don’t delay your customers and employees are counting on you!