The loudly defensive and hot potato throwing personality style is one such style that I have developed methods for effective management. Arguing doesn’t seem to be the thing for gaining productivity from this behavior style. Instead, it is important to stay factual and calm. I must be very organized and completely capable of following up on the minutest of details. This is the only way to deal with this person. The “hot potato throwing” personality style is one who shirks responsibility by throwing it into someone else’s lap. For this behavior I must be very focused and completely capable of resetting our conversations to meet my goals rather than the other person’s goals. If I am the boss, it is up to me to keep the conversation where it needs to be. For myself, I have to recall that the goal of work is to create a work product, whatever that may be. My end point can never be to listen to complaining and shirking.
In any case my loud and defensive hot potato thrower (I’ll just call them LAD) is normally someone who puts a lot of effort into defensiveness and no effort into the work product. So, normally this behavior style is not difficult to fire because if you track their work (and not their mouthiness) you will see that they are not getting their work done. In fact, I associate LAD with laziness and sloppiness, or at least nonperformance and ineffectiveness. Because of this, when I come across this LAD style, I immediately begin tracking their work product.
What is amazing to me is that on my new staff, I have a LAD who is NOT an ineffective non-performer. She works hard and is very effective. She is the researcher who can be relied upon to get to the bottom of the problem and really find out the issues. She likes her work and likes to work hard. But if you ask her a question about her work or her work product she is LOUD AND DEFENSIVE. She tells long stories about how difficult the work is and how unfair a situation is. You think she is misleading you away from the conversation and maybe she is. But, it’s not because she didn’t get the work done. She did. She is just LAD. Interesting, huh.