No matter how great a place you're working in, eventually you are going to run into someone who is driving you crazy. Maybe it's a passive-aggressive co-worker who never delivers on her promises. Or the guy in the next cube who is always complaining. Or a boss who set unreasonable deadlines. And it could be a client or a vendor who is acting up. Being able to deal with challenging people and situations is a part of being a person. These can be highly emotional situations, but if you let your emotions dictate your behavior the situation can quickly get out of hand.
I've got some techniques that work well for handling difficult people. Some of this material is from Carl and Suzanne Cohen's book Lab Dynamics: Management and Leadership Skills for Scientists, which is a good place to start if you want more details. The following scripts are adapted from workshops that Carl and I have run.
Click on Agree-Empathize-Inquire below to get started.
Comments
If you are offended by the
If you are offended by the word "a-holes", don't read this. Otherwise, it is spot on:
"A-holes are killing your project"