One of the most common frustrations I hear from people who are responsible for other people on a day-to-day basis is dealing with difficult employees. It can be extremely challenging to motivate someone who disagrees with you or doesn’t share your sense of urgency, who isn’t willing to do the work you assign them, or who just seems lazy.

You are a business owner or manager, so you understand that business is not personal. But this is not the case with your employees. They can make personal attacks on you and they can cause a problem with your business in a matter of minutes. They can be disrespectful when you are trying to talk to them about an issue in the workplace.

One of the more difficult aspects of dealing with difficult employees is that there’s no magic solution. It’s not as if there were a trick you could apply and suddenly they would become a model employee. However, there are some things you can do to improve the situation and make it easier for everyone involved.

If an employee becomes difficult or makes an issue out of something you really don’t think is that big of a deal, how do you handle it? Before you fire the difficult employee or get into a shouting match with the difficult employee try these five tactics for dealing with difficult employees.

Understand The Situation
It’s tempting to think that someone is difficult because he or she is doing something wrong. But that’s not necessarily true, and it’s a good idea to check your assumptions. The first step in dealing effectively with a difficult employee is to learn as much as possible about what makes the person tick and why they’re doing what they’re doing. If it’s something they’ve done before, try to understand why they did it then and what was different about those circumstances versus now. If it’s a new behavior, figure out how it might be related to something else that’s going on in their life (e.g., financial problems).

Focus on The Behavior Not The Personality
Separate the person from the problem (and try to keep them that way). Difficult people are rarely all bad — even the most annoying ones contain some good qualities. That’s how they got hired in the first place, after all. But even if a difficult employee is all bad, it can be useful to separate their personality from their performance and hold them to account anyway.

Raise Issues Directly And Clearly With The Employee.
Don’t beat around the bush or try to handle things on your own behind his/her back. Be sure you are both talking about the same thing, though; if you don’t make yourself clear, you will only make matters worse, and probably create some very negative feelings about you in the process.

Collaborate on a Solution And Keep Track of Their Progress.
When you discuss a difficult employee’s behavior with them, the best solution is that the two of you work together to establish a solution that you both agree on. Discuss the undesirable behavior, what constitutes good behavior, and what the employee requires of you in order to improve. Decide on a solution to the problem and keep track of their progress. Have regular one-on-one meetings with them to assess the quality of their work and see how they’re doing with the solution you both decided on. This will earn the employee’s trust and possibly motivate them to improve.

Remember, Keep Your Cool Always
You are always going to be the boss. You have the responsibility for dealing with difficult employees. You need to keep your cool at all times because if you overreact, the situation could get worse and it will make it harder to resolve the problem.