new employee has excellent skill set but with 'attitude', and assigned 250 miles away from headquarters, what to do?

Submitted by rod borillo
in
Management and Leadership
hi group: i have a new employee who has been on the job for almost 2 months, has the skills set and performs the essential behaviors required of the job BUT I have been receiving feedback from co-workers that employee is 'two-faced', 'lies', and has 'temper tantrums'. sad thing is employee presents a different MO when I am around or during my formal O3, any thoughts on how to deal with this? Thanks!
Submitted by Davis Staedtler on Thursday February 26th, 2009 8:14 pm

Rborillo,

.....I never like this type of situation. Active leadership and awareness needed here....to the max!

Assume positive intent in the new employee, observe behaviors for yourself, start documenting and give feedback on the behaviors that you can. Keep a keen eye on performance and raise the level of their game. Get them to move the needle a little farther than you had initially set the expectation for. Maybe you'll see the true character arise.

-Davis

Submitted by Davis Staedtler on Thursday February 26th, 2009 8:52 pm

Time for a visit :-)

Submitted by Sam Baskinger on Monday March 2nd, 2009 1:11 pm

I've seen before a team in which a new hire did not mesh well and as a result any conflict that arose (speaking professional conflict, not lobbing staplers at one another) resulted in some blown-out-of-proportion claims and a few fabrications. Absolutely eye-ball the behavior as close as is reasonably possible, especially if the person is new.
Sam