When I first started offering my "Dealing with Difficult People" seminars I assumed that clients would be the most difficult group of people faced by those in the workplace. 

My second guess was - difficult workmates.  I was wrong in making these assumptions because overwhelmingly, the most difficult people identified by my 45,000 participants world-wide, were their difficult supervisors or managers!

Why is this the case?  Because most of their supervisors/managers/department heads etc. had not received the basic training necessary for them to successfully supervise others. 

These difficult supervisors make mistakes such as:

• Discipline their staff in front of workmates or clients.
• Label staff's behaviour (stupid, dumb) or making sarcastic remarks, instead of trying to correct the actual behaviour of the staff member.
• Don't give recognition for a job well done.
• Concentrate on the 2% the staff does wrong, instead of the 98% they do correctly.
• Don't back up their staff when dealing with customer complaints.
• Don't provide an up-to-date job description with key performance indicators and standards of performance for the tasks performed by their staff.
• Don't provide the necessary training to fill the gap between the job requirements and the employee's skills.
• Conduct performance appraisals on staff without a proper job description upon which to base their evaluation.  (If the employee doesn't know what's expected of him/her, and the supervisor doesn't know either - how can a fair evaluation of the performance be done?)
• Have one set of company rules for staff - another for themselves.  Bend the rules when clients go over the head of front-line staff, causing embarrassment for staff member.
• No set policy and procedure manuals available so the rules and regulations of the company are not clearly defined.
• Harass staff (either through bullying or sexual harassment).
• Do nothing to improve the employee's interest in their jobs.
• Are not available when their staff need their help.
• Won't listen to their staff's suggestions about better ways to complete tasks.
• Are perfectionists and expect everything to be done perfectly.

If this describes the actions of YOUR supervisors/Managers, seriously consider providing them with the necessary tools to do their jobs properly - otherwise you're setting them up to fail!  Will this take a long time and cost too much?  No - learning the basics of supervision won't involve as much time as you'd expect.  Some bosses say they don't need this kind of training.  After all, they have a B.A. or an MBA degree.  Unfortunately, most of these programs do not include training in how to be a good supervisor.  Other new supervisors just clone the behaviour of their past supervisors little realising that they too were "Supervisors from Hell."

Let's say you've just accepted your first supervisory position but haven't had basic supervisory training.  What will you need to learn?  The first thing is to realise that you'll have an entirely different role to play.  People expect so much from you - from your boss downward, and from your staff upwards.  How's a person to cope?  You'll have to delegate work to your staff, but how do you decide who's the right person to do the job? 

And after you've delegated the task, how do you motivate your staff to do a good job for you?  How do your manage your time, when so many people need you to be available to them - and still get your own work done?  You know that if you're not efficient in time management, you'll have your staff sitting around twiddling their thumbs one minute or madly scrambling at the last minute to complete assignments.  If this happens, you'll be in trouble with your boss.

Then there are the problems - oh the problems!  Why do your staff keep coming to you with their "Mickey Mouse" problems - can't they use some initiative and make some decisions on their own?  You say that If I'd trained them thoroughly, they wouldn't be coming to me with those kinds of problems?  Who has the time or the capabilities to play the part of a training manager along with all the other duties I'm expected to perform?

Are you really responsible for choosing new staff?  How are you supposed to do that when you've never hired anyone before, and haven't a clue how to do so without breaking the anti-discrimination laws.  You'll probably have to step in and deal with personality problems between staff members, correct behaviour and production problems, will update job descriptions, and conduct performance appraisal interviews.

What if you're one of ten workmates who applied for the job and will be facing nine hostile staff members who thought they should have the job?  And Bill is your best friend - can you still socialise with him or will you have to distance yourself from him because he now reports to you? 

Many who have taken on the responsibilities of a supervisor wonder whatever possessed them to accept the position. Unless a supervisor knows how to deal with these issues - he or she will likely become another "Supervisor from Hell."  So what's a person to do?   Get the necessary training - even if you have to pay for it yourself!  

Roberta Cava is the international best-selling author of "Dealing with Difficult People", "Dealing with Difficult Situations - At Work and at Home". 

Roberta will be delivering a two-day workshop on "Survival Skills for New Supervisors and Managers" on 7 – 8 Mar 2006 in Singapore.  This event is organised by Partners Conference & Event Management Pte Ltd (Reg. No. 200210370R).  For details of this workshop plus her other workshops on "Dealing with Difficult People" and "Creative Problem Solving", visit www.partners-conference.com or email us at enquiries@partners-conference.com