High-maintenance Employees: Why Your Best People Will Also Be Your Most Difficult...and What You Can Do About It

By Katherine Graham Leviss

Every day, managers find themselves wondering what to do about Joe. That is, "Joe is a brilliant employee, a visionary. But no one can work with him because he's so unapproachable." What do they do? High-Maintenance Employees is the first book to give managers detailed guidance on how to get the best out of high-maintenance high-performers--visionary employees who are difficult to keep on track. Kathi Graham-Leviss has spent the last 20 years coaching companies on how to improve their results, and realized that the No. 1 problem facing companies was how to manage these essential employees. High-Maintenance Employees takes the reader on a step-by-step process that includes: --Identifying and appreciating high-maintenance high-performers --Understanding their behavior --Creating the best work environment --Rewarding and leading high-maintenance high-performers --Integrating them into teams By following these steps, managers will learn how to maximize their employees' performance, and thereby maximize their business.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1402206232
• ISBN13: 9781402206238
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Inc
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.8" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

A solid guide to managing high-performance employees who are also high maintenance

Written by expert business coach Katherine Graham Leviss, High-Maintenance Employees is a solid guide to managing high-performance employees who are also high maintenance. Chapters cover how to identify high- maintenance high performers, understanding the most effective communication methods when dealing with different personalities, the four basic behavioral styles (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance), coaching strategies, advice for integrating a high-maintenance high performer into a team, what to do when working for a high-maintenance, high performer boss, and much more. Key tips are frequently broken down into bullet points for easy reference and memorization. A practical-minded, highly readable guide to easing through personality differences for maximum business success.

Recommended for supervisors, human resource specialists and Type A's

Author Kathi Graham-Leviss discovered early in her career that she wasn't like many of her colleagues. She was driven, and she wanted the freedom to make her own decisions. Her bosses told her frankly that she wasn't an easy person to manage. In short, Leviss was a "high-maintenance high-performer" - an HMHP. She was one of those Type A personalities who had to achieve her goals no matter what. Graham-Leviss is now a job coach and consultant who helps companies attract and nurture HMHPs. In her book she takes a behavioral approach, examining HMHPs' characteristics and responses, and suggesting ways to manage them. The book is written from a decidedly pro-HMHP standpoint, and focuses on coaching HMHPs rather than, for example, telling them that their exasperating behavior had better change or else. Actually, she will persuade you that harnessing the energies of driven personalities is essential for any organization. We recommend this book to supervisors, human resource specialists and high-maintenance high-performers (you know who you are).