Less is More

Dear Alisa and Gina,
I work in a small company where I manage a team of professionals who are all relatively experienced at what they do, with the exception of one person. We are all under a lot of stress and deadlines every day and we’re on the phone most of the time. We sit in a large room and we do ask each other questions and we need to work together on certain projects. Our newest member has a lot of potential but he talks a lot – and it’s often distracting. I need to speak with him about his habits and make sure he takes this as constructive feedback, he just needs to learn to fit in to the culture so that the overall productivity of the group is not hindered. What should I say? What should I not say?

The best time to bring someone new into the existing culture is right from the start. You are absolutely on target to speak up now; you don’t want him to develop any habits you might have to undo. In fact, you might want to set up a weekly de-brief with your new employee and have it be a conversation. Find out what he’s noticing. Try asking open ended questions that steer him to notice the kind of things you want him to pay attention to. If you feel he’s not getting how he needs to fit in you'll need to mention how important it is that everyone work well together. ~ Alisa

Who's he talking to? The listeners are part of the problem as well. (Unless he's talking to himself - and then you have a totally different problem.) I think you also need to talk to the people who are listening to him and offer them graceful ways to bow out of conversation when he gets too talkative. Though this is a gentle approach, and it may take him a while to change his ways, if he's not totally clueless he'll start to notice that his words are falling on deaf ears. ~ Gina