u/Material_Still1124

I have this team member. He's really good at following through things and leading projects to success. He's a doer and he clears all obstacles to make sure things go the ways he wants (most of the time success of a project).

But somehow other people don't like him. I have heard more than 2 complaints now about not getting along with him. I asked for all details and to be honest, it's not like he did things maliciously bad. I think a few reasons from his end:

1. If you arent close to him, he appears to be distant. If you get to know him which usually takes time and energy, he shows his soft, reasonable, warm, welcoming self and that is generally amazing to work with.
2. He is not the best communicator. He's a bit intimidating in the sense that he is very assertive and driven to get what he wants. That means he can be pushy, and the way he phrases things could make people feel authority while he doesn't have (for example, instead of "can you look into this with me / can you have a call with me so we could look together" he goes "please step in and handle because it's been hanging there for a few days now"). It triggers people because there's a little bit of blaming in his tone. He accepts push backs too when he thinks it makes sense, he's just not easily convinced.

People generally just assume hostility and malicious intention from him but maybe I see the good in people, I want to defend him when the others complains about him because I generally don't see any red flag in those complaints, he's not inappropriate or malicious, he just needs improvement on how to communicate. He wants to progress to become a manager. I think he'll do great because he cares and he is good. I already am thinking about ways to help him and he's getting feedback from me. But my question is how can I defend him when the others complains to me?

I don't want wrong imagine built for him becsuse it becomes difficult to manage for me and to work in general for him. A comment I got when I just explained to the complainer why he did what he did and that it was not malicious was "I know you're covering him because you're his boss", but no, I want to be fair, I genuinely don't think he's that problematic and maybe these guys shouldn't just assume malicious intention? How can I "defend" him fairly?

I have this team member. He's really good at following through things and leading projects to success. He's a doer and he clears all obstacles to make sure things go the ways he wants (most of the time success of a project).

But somehow other people don't like him. I have heard more than 2 complaints now about not getting along with him. I asked for all details and to be honest, it's not like he did things maliciously bad. I think a few reasons from his end:

1. If you arent close to him, he appears to be distant. If you get to know him which usually takes time and energy, he shows his soft, reasonable, warm, welcoming self and that is generally amazing to work with.

2. He is not the best communicator. He's a bit intimidating in the sense that he is very assertive and driven to get what he wants. That means he can be pushy, and the way he phrases things could make people feel authority while he doesn't have (for example, instead of "can you look into this with me / can you have a call with me so we could look together" he goes "please step in and handle because it's been hanging there for a few days now"). It triggers people because there's a little bit of blaming in his tone. He accepts push backs too when he thinks it makes sense, he's just not easily convinced.

People generally just assume hostility and malicious intention from him but maybe I see the good in people, I want to defend him when the others complains about him because I generally don't see any red flag in those complaints, he's not inappropriate or malicious, he just needs improvement on how to communicate. He wants to progress to become a manager. I think he'll do great because he cares and he is good. I already am thinking about ways to help him and he's getting feedback from me. But my question is how can I defend him when the others complains to me?

I don't want wrong imagine built for him becsuse it becomes difficult to manage for me and to work in general for him. A comment I got when I just explained to the complainer why he did what he did and that it was not malicious was "I know you're covering him because you're his boss", but no, I want to be fair, I genuinely don't think he's that problematic and maybe these guys shouldn't just assume malicious intention? How can I "defend" him fairly?