8 Dealing with difficult people-V2

Course On Campus to Corporate: Dealing with Difficult People UNIT-8: DEALING WITH DIFFICULT PEOPLE Structure 8.1 Learning Objectives 8.2 Introduction 8.3 Process to manage difficult people 8.1 Learning Objectives By the end of this unit, you will be able to: • Understand the personality and communication style of others as well as yourself. • Understand how to deal with difficult behaviour. • Solve issues effectively. • Deal with different personalities. • Manage difficult interactions. 8.2 Introduction Anger is a normal, healthy emotion, neither good nor bad. Like any emotion, it conveys a message, telling you that a situation is upsetting, unjust, or threatening. If your kneejerk reaction to anger is to explode, however, that message never has a chance to be conveyed. So, while it’s perfectly normal to feel angry when you’ve been mistreated or wronged, anger becomes a problem when you express it in a way that harms yourself or others. Page 1 of 6 All Rights Reserved. Vol. TLE001/03-2022

Course On Campus to Corporate: Dealing with Difficult People 8.3 Process to Manage Difficult People It isn’t easy to manage a group of people. Sometimes, it feels like your team isn’t listening, or that you’re not doing a great job. Thankfully, you can always improve the way you manage people. If you employ the below 12-step process, you’ll be well on your way to creating a motivated team that’s as powerful and strong as you are. Here’s the process to improve your management skills and better manage your team: 1. Outline Your Goals: Whether you feel like your leadership strategies aren’t effective, or you simply want to continually work to better yourself, it’s important to set an intention and document your goals for becoming a better manager. Make sure to get them on pen and paper. Interestingly, those who write down their goals are more likely to achieve them. 2. Determine Where You Can Improve: We’re all different, and your areas of weakness are going to be different from other managers or team members. Once you’ve outlined your goals, you should determine areas for improvement. Consider taking a variety of professional assessments and personality tests to assess where you’re at. These 5 leadership personality tests might be a good start. 3. Talk to Your Team: Your team has a wealth of information on your leadership performance that can help you improve. Looping in your team to your pursuit, will help them help you. • Tell your team, you’re working on improving your leadership skills. Page 2 of 6 All Rights Reserved. Vol. TLE001/03-2022

Course On Campus to Corporate: Dealing with Difficult People • Send out a survey, allowing your team members to remain anonymous. Ask employees how you’re doing as a manager, where you could improve, what they do and don’t like about your style? • Conduct one-on-one meetings with your direct reports and ask them point blank how you could be a better manager? 4. Get Organized: One of the reasons leaders are ineffective is because they’re all over the place. They don’t have the right software solutions, they’re unsure of their goals, and they have difficulty resolving conflicts. Organization can help. At the start of every month or quarter, outline areas that are disorganized and confusing, and strategize ways they can be improved. Maybe, you need a software solution to help you organize your calendar, or a new meeting schedule with your reports. 5. Take a Leadership Course: Sometimes, it’s difficult to improve on your own. Courses can help. Look to your local colleges and universities to see, if, they offer any courses on leadership. There are tons of online courses as well, that you can take at your own pace. Dale Carnegie Training offers affordable leadership courses on decision- making, critical thinking, how to disagree agreeably, and how to lead change effectively. Udemy also provides a large array of online courses– we especially like their course on habits of highly effective leaders. 6. Read Management Books: Each day, you’re confronted with the same problems, and it’s unlikely, your mind-set will change. Books transport you outside of yourself, and allow you to look at your situation from new perspectives. There are tons of great books on business management worth reading, but here are a few favourites that will start you off on the right foot: • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. Page 3 of 6 All Rights Reserved. Vol. TLE001/03-2022

Course On Campus to Corporate: Dealing with Difficult People • What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School: Notes from a Street-smart Executive. • How to Win Friends and Influence People? 7. Learn How to Listen: One of the biggest complaints of employees everywhere is that they don’t feel heard. They don’t feel as though they have the ability to express their opinion or positively make a change in the organization. When they speak up, they feel ignored, and that makes them unhappy and unmotivated. According to Udemy, there are five aspects of good listening— receiving, understanding, remembering, evaluating, and responding. You need to be able to understand all five of these aspects to listen to your employees. 8. Practice, Praising and Rewarding: To be a good leader, you have to give feedback to your employees; especially, praise and rewards. When you’re praising an employee, be specific. Instead of saying, “you’re doing a great job”, highlight a specific project and explain why their help was so important. Try “the project for client ABC was very difficult, but the way you communicated their needs to the entire team is what made us get it right. I was really impressed with that. Nice work.” In a Harvard Business Review survey on employee engagement, 72% of survey respondents said that, recognizing high performers had a large impact on engagement. 9. Find a Mentor or Coach: It can be difficult to accurately assess your own leadership skills. That’s why, many turn to executive coaches, mentors, and others they can trust. Page 4 of 6 All Rights Reserved. Vol. TLE001/03-2022

Course On Campus to Corporate: Dealing with Difficult People Perhaps, you already have a mentor, or maybe, there’s someone you can turn to for honest assessment of your skills. Executive coaches are also a great option. Those who specialize in leadership, can work with you to identify your strengths and weaknesses, then help you put a plan in place to tackle your goals. Harvard Business Review suggests, executive coaches and gives a great outline on how to find one who’s a good fit for you and your organization. 10. Learn How to Effectively Communicate: Effective communication is one of the most important parts of leadership, and different team members will respond to different styles. Workplace psychologists have defined four communication styles that we all fall into. By reading about and understanding these four styles, you’ll be better able to communicate with those that you work with. • Thinkers – Thinkers, need time to process and think things through before responding. They work slowly, deliberately, and want to make sure everything is just right. • Socializers – Socializers thrive on talking with others and get energy from their colleagues. Socializers work fast, have great ideas, and process information very quickly. • Directors – Directors are known for getting things done quickly and efficiently. They think quickly, make fast decisions, and like research and proven facts. • Relaters – Relaters are relationship-oriented and enjoy working with others. Unlike the socializer, they move at a slower, calmer pace. 11. Be Transparent: Companies are beginning to embrace transparency in the workplace. As a leader, you should embrace it with your staff. Today, about 25% of employers, don’t trust their employer, according to the American Psychological Association. That’s bad news. Employees, who don’t trust their company or their boss are unlikely to put themselves on the line for their company. But this can be fixed! Page 5 of 6 All Rights Reserved. Vol. TLE001/03-2022

Course On Campus to Corporate: Dealing with Difficult People Harvard Business Review found that 70% of people are most engaged; if, senior leadership updates them about what’s going on with the company as a whole. As a leader, you’re in a great position – you can be transparent with employees and let them know what’s going on. In turn, they’ll be more engaged and regard you as a better leader. 12. Create a Feedback System: It’s great that you’ve invested so much in becoming a better leader, but you have to continually go back to your people to find out how you’re doing. How to do this? Implement a system for giving feedback, so that your employees always feel as though they can express themselves when something is wrong. For example, many companies offer performance reviews on a quarterly basis, but these reviews should also allow employees to make suggestions to their managers. Page 6 of 6 All Rights Reserved. Vol. TLE001/03-2022