How To Manage Someone Who Is Totally Disorganised

Some strategies to help a person overcome the natural inclination towards disorder.

- Rebecca Knight

MANAGING A DISORGANISED employee is often a maddening experience. How can you help your scattered direct report develop better systems? How can you drive home the importance of staying on top of meetings, calendars, and e-mails? And is it even possible to help a person overcome a natural inclination towards disorder?

What the Experts Say

Even if you’re not the type of person with a tidy desk and an ordered to-do list, it can be frustrating – not to mention stress inducing – to manage someone who’s disorganised. “You’re not sure if the other person has dropped the ball or even if they are going to hit the deadline, and so you may feel anxious,” says Elizabeth Grace Saunders, author of How to Invest Your Time Like Money. It may be hard for you to fathom that other people operate this way. “One of the biggest reasons you’re frustrated and upset is that it’s different,” she says. Addressing the issue may be a challenge, but it’s often necessary. Your goal, says Linda Hill, a professor at Harvard Business School and the co-author of Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader, is to express, “what your team needs” and “what you need as a boss to be as productive and effective as possible.” Here are some strategies.

Reflect on the Size of the Problem