You are in an interview.

One of the most common approaches for managers to cajole an employee into following directives and yet achieve autonomy in making decisions is to direct that employee towards one course of action. Typically, they'll then wander off in another direction! The dilemma is to make the employee wander along a positive route and not follow a path that could have serious repercussions.

You can achieve this by simply exploring with the employee a list of alternative options (one of which should have adverse consequences), and then ask them to choose the best route. Most employees will then ‘spontaneously' find another item from the list you have discussed.

Another way to handle a problem employee is to encourage resistance. For example, if an employee says: "I'm not doing it that way. This way is easier", the manager does not need to say: "Now cut that out!" Instead, the manager can simply accept the employee's response - and even encourage it - by saying: "That's fine. You can do it that way."

By accepting the employee's resistance over a short time, the manager ensures that the employee is caught in a situation where his or her attempt to resist is defined as co-operative behaviour. The employee will find themselves following the manager's directives no matter what he or she does, simply because what he or she does is defined as co-operation. Once he or she is co-operating, their actions can then be diverted into new behaviour.

Using an analogy or metaphor

When an employee resists directives (ie does not like to be told), another way to deal with the problem is to communicate in terms of an analogy or metaphor. This is used to great effect by public speakers. They link the subject to a powerful metaphor, and the employee will often make the connection ‘spontaneously' and respond appropriately.

An important consideration here is not to explain the metaphor, allowing the employee to interpret it as they deem appropriate. This engages the employee's mind as a way of bringing about change. The effect of metaphors can be greatly enhanced with the appropriate use of modalities. Equally, analogy or metaphor may be communicated in both verbal and non-verbal ways.

Another approach is to encourage a relapse. This is very useful when an employee is eager or very bright, and they have not learned from making enough errors. In other words, things have gone too smoothly for them. This is typified when the employee exclaims: "That is simple" or "I know how to do this", and thus they've not seen the bigger picture or how things relate to one another.

To achieve a relapse, the manager needs to establish a ‘challenge' that will ensure they have to explore the potential pitfalls and make new connections so as not to fail. An example of this would be to ask the employee to job share in a department where accuracy is the byword, or to sit in on a disciplinary hearing where he or she experiences the issues involved first hand.

One technique that is particularly useful when dealing with resistance to change or lacking imagination or flexibility is to frustrate the situation. Put simply, the manager should direct the employee to act in a certain way and, as the employee begins to do so, the manager should shift them to another area thereby frustrating the natural desire for an outcome.

Managers must interpret negative actions or hostile behaviour not as deliberate acts of truculence, but reframe them in a positive way to encourage change. Managers who ‘seed ideas’ often have unexpectedly great results

When the manager returns to that directive again, the employee will be more responsive as they will have developed a readiness to be so.

Visual and auditory clues

All employees are aware of their immediate surroundings and how they interact with them, but they do not think about them. This security is obtained by a mixture of both visual and auditory cues, and any shifts in those cues can change a person's orientation.

Remove one of your cues (for example, suppose your boss is XYZ person… how would they respond to your proposal?). Here, the employee is required to think in a different way. It's there that the current orientation is altered. This spatial orientation can go as far as moral issues, religion and gender, and can prove very useful in areas of conflict.

In all modern management thinking, it is assumed that there is a natural desire for growth within a person, partly based upon the view that there is greater co-operation from an employee if one emphasises the positive. Managers must interpret negative actions or hostile behaviour not as deliberate acts of truculence, but reframe them in a positive way to encourage change. They do not minimise difficulties but find, within the difficulties, some aspect of them that can be used to improve the functioning of a person or team.

Managers who ‘seed ideas' (or establish certain ideas and later build upon them) often have unexpectedly great results. By continually seeding ideas, management has continuity in that something is introduced but always with a framework that connects it with what has been done on previous occasions. This is a gradual process and managers are cautioned about trying to achieve too much too quickly. They should accept and work with what is offered.

You'll notice, however, that if the change is in a crucial area, what appears to be a small matter can ‘reinvent' the entire system.

What's plainly evident is that there can be no right or wrong answer to behavioural questions. What there most certainly can be, however, is an illustration of knowledge.