Personality Bombs

Defusing Personality Bombs At Work

By:
Morey Stettner



Manage enough employees and you'll face individuals with personality disorders. The way you respond can either promote calm or provoke turmoil.
"We all have diverse personalities," said Laurence Miller, a clinical business psychologist in Boca Raton, Fla. "But when personality traits turn into personality disorders, you have a problem."

"From Difficult to Disturbed," Miller describes the most difficult people to manage as "personality stealth bombs." The severity of their dysfunctional personality may not manifest itself at first, but it eventually grates on everyone on the team.

Difficult employees may exhibit narcissism, anti-social behavior and obsessive-compulsive characteristics, Miller says. By knowing how to spot these problems, you can take steps to contain the damage and disruption that these individuals often cause.

"Managers don't need to be psychologists and make clinical diagnoses," Miller said. "They just need to be aware of what to look for and use their intuition."

Narcissistic personalities have a wildly inflated sense of themselves. They think they are superior to others -- smarter and more special -- and as a result they may ignore rules and chafe at constructive criticism. Rarely modest, they tend to hog credit for team accomplishments and make suggestions that they deem brilliant.

"It's important to coach narcissists to follow through on their good ideas," Miller said. Because they crave attention, reward them for implementing their ideas by praising their execution and inviting them to lead training sessions.

Anti-social personalities disregard the respectful communication that characterizes a healthy workplace. They are often "the most malignant" types of employees, Miller said, because they're apt to cheat or steal without compunction.

"Anti-social personalities lie and they're good at it," Miller warned. "They can charm the birds out of the trees, so pin them down. Assess their performance using clear measures so that they can't get around things using glib explanations."

Because these types of employees tend to do the least amount of work that they can and alienate colleagues with their lack of civility, it's especially important to identify and reject job seekers with anti-social personalities.

Always check references and confirm the applicant's claims of achievements in past jobs. Be wary if you detect repeated inconsistencies in the candidate's comments.

Obsessive-compulsive personalities place undue emphasis on minutiae. Their productivity can suffer because they spend too much time fussing and nit-picking, although their love of detail can work well for certain complex or multistep projects.

Manage these individuals by encouraging them to take breaks and appreciate the big picture. Direct their focus on what matters most so that they don't approach every aspect of their job with excessive orderliness.