Dealing with Difficult Behavior

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For most managers, ‘people issues’ consume the largest portion of time and effort.  No employee is more time consuming than one exhibiting difficult behaviour.  For this reason, building skills to cope with difficult people has an immediate and measureable return.

Everyone displays difficult behaviour at one time or another.  People often engage in difficult behavior because such action has worked for them in the past.  There are very specific techniques that managers can use to address difficult behaviour.  Some specific behaviours require certain responses, but for all difficult behaviours:

• Focus on the specific behaviour, not the person or personalities
• Identify the type of behaviour, and strategize a response before reacting
• Attempt to understand the root cause of the behavior
• Avoid public showdowns
• Determine if the conversation can continue at that time, and postpone it if emotions are running high
• Be aware of the impact of the behavior is having on you
• Don’t make excuses for the person
• Choose to do something about the behavior

Not all the Turtles make it to the Sea

In some cases a difficult person will not respond to reasonable attempts to assist them in correcting their behavior, and organizational health can be at stake.  In such a case, high integrity leaders must make the unpleasant choice to part company with that person.

Get the Complete ‘Dealing with Difficult Employees’ Topic Bundle

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The Dealing with Difficult Employees topic bundle includes:

• Dealing with Difficult Employees Cheat Sheet (pdf)
• Dealing with Difficult Employees Booklet (pdf) containing:
  • In-Depth Topic Overview
  • How to Deal with People Who Love to ARGUE
  • How to Deal with People Who Feel Unreasonably ENTITLED
  • How to Deal with People Who Think They KNOW IT ALL
  • How to Deal with Chronic PESSIMISTS or BLAMERS
  • How to Deal with People Who DON’T WANT TO WORK
  • How to Deal with the UNMOTIVATED
  • How to Deal with a BULLY
  • How to Deal with People Who ALWAYS ARGUE and people Who Can NEVER MAKE A DECISION
  • Recommended Resources – where to find out even more about Dealing with Difficult Employees

• Dealing with Difficult Employees Podcast (mp3)
• Dealing with Difficult Employees Podcast slides (Powerpoint)