Handling Personality Problems At Collection Agencies

Advice For
In-House
Debt Collection

Han­dling Per­son­al­ity Prob­lems At Col­lec­tion Agencies

By Dean Kaplan

Good man­age­ment skills help col­lec­tion agen­cies and com­pa­nies in gen­eral to stay com­pet­i­tive and suc­cess­ful. The term “man­age­ment skills” is a broad cat­e­gory which includes moti­vat­ing, dis­ci­plin­ing as well as deal­ing with per­son­al­ity prob­lems occa­sion­ally. This is the third of five arti­cles deal­ing with how excel­lent man­age­ment skills lead to increased suc­cess for agen­cies and credit departments.

Each debt col­lec­tor has his or her own unique per­son­al­ity. Per­son­al­i­ties are devel­oped over a life­time, so expect­ing to sig­nif­i­cantly change someone’s per­son­al­ity is very unre­al­is­tic and essen­tially impos­si­ble. When a col­lec­tor has a per­son­al­ity prob­lem, it usu­ally stems from strong reac­tions and emo­tions relat­ing to dif­fer­ent work sit­u­a­tions. Per­son­al­ity traits can range from feel­ings that the world is against them to extreme aggres­sion, hos­til­ity, sub­mis­sive­ness or depen­dency. Because of the vari­ety of per­son­al­ity traits out there, the manager’s job can be very chal­leng­ing to say the least.

Don't waste time and energy argu­ing with your employ­ees. Deal with per­son­al­ity con­flicts and get more done

How a man­ager han­dles debt col­lec­tors with these extreme per­son­al­ity traits will deter­mine whether or not a human rela­tions prob­lem will develop. Here are some strate­gies to use when deal­ing with sticky per­son­al­ity problems.

• When­ever pos­si­ble, avoid deal­ing with a debt collector’s per­son­al­ity prob­lems on an emo­tional level. This does not mean you should avoid or ignore the per­son, it sim­ply means know­ing your bound­aries when man­ag­ing. You are paid to do a job, not be a coun­selor or emo­tional back­board for the employee to hit against.
• Emo­tional prob­lems require pro­fes­sional help. If applic­a­ble, sug­gest coun­sel­ing, and rec­om­mend the Human Resources Depart­ment as a resource for iden­ti­fy­ing com­pany ben­e­fits relat­ing to men­tal health.
• Do not allow your­self to become emo­tion­ally invested with the col­lec­tor exhibit­ing per­son­al­ity prob­lems. In addi­tion, dis­cour­age the collector’s co-workers from get­ting emo­tion­ally involved. These sit­u­a­tions typ­i­cally become huge time and emo­tion sucks, and rarely if ever have a pos­i­tive out­come.
• If you iden­tify a debt col­lec­tor with a par­tic­u­larly strong per­son­al­ity trait, attempt to team him or her up with other debt col­lec­tors with sim­i­lar per­son­al­i­ties. If you can find com­pat­i­ble col­lec­tors to team up, this is may be more pro­duc­tive than team­ing an aggres­sive per­son for exam­ple with a very pas­sive per­son.
• There may be times, how­ever, when team­ing a some­what timid col­lec­tor with a very con­fi­dent one, may be appro­pri­ate. In this case, the timid col­lec­tor may gain con­fi­dence and expe­ri­ence from observ­ing and work­ing next to the con­fi­dent col­lec­tor. A man­ager must under­stand the needs of his or her employ­ees. This under­stand­ing will help the man­ager develop work­ing strate­gies that empha­size the strengths of employ­ees and min­i­mize the weak­nesses.
Some agen­cies seat their debt col­lec­tors together in an open area. This can enhance team work, how­ever, it also can exac­er­bate con­flict when per­son­al­ity prob­lems exist. As man­agers in this sce­nario, it is imper­a­tive to be con­stantly on the look­out for issues putting down­ward pres­sure on pro­duc­tiv­ity. When a sit­u­a­tion is iden­ti­fied, act quickly by imple­ment­ing the appro­pri­ate tips dis­cussed above. Take action quickly to avoid an esca­lat­ing human rela­tions problem.

Agen­cies, like any oper­at­ing busi­ness, must deal with per­son­al­ity prob­lems occa­sion­ally. Man­agers who can pos­i­tively han­dle per­son­al­ity prob­lems will be bet­ter able to pro­mote pro­duc­tiv­ity within their depart­ments. Click here if you missed the first arti­cle in this series Moti­va­tion Is A Key To Suc­cess For Col­lec­tion Agen­cies. Click here you missed the sec­ond arti­cle in the series, Dis­ci­pline Strate­gies for the Col­lec­tion Agency. Click here if you’re ready to go onto the fourth arti­cle in the series Del­e­ga­tion Strate­gies For Col­lec­tion Agencies.

The Kaplan Group is a bou­tique col­lec­tion agency spe­cial­iz­ing in large (over $10,000) debt col­lec­tions due from busi­nesses. Founded in 1991, the com­pany has a stel­lar rep­u­ta­tion (A+ rat­ing with the Bet­ter Busi­ness Bureau) and is rec­og­nized as one of the lead­ing col­lec­tion agen­cies for results on large and com­plex mat­ters.

…