How To Cope With A Difficult Person At Work

Coping with difficult people is a daily struggle for many of us. A difficult person is someone who manifests unpleasant personality traits or behavioral characteristics. People often find it unpleasant to talk with them and to maintain a healthy interpersonal relationship with them. Oftentimes, arrogant people, people who spread rumors, less cooperative people and people who always demonstrate negative a attitude are categorized as difficult people.

As a manager, you likely deal with these types of people at work everyday. You need to feel comfortable at work in order to be efficient. Unfortunately, you cannot stop your co-workers from being difficult. You cannot always connect with your coworking space colleagues either. However, you can learn how to deal with them in the most effective ways. Read on to learn how to cope with a difficult person at work.

Types Of Difficult People

There are several types of difficult people including:

• Perfectionists: Even though perfectionism is often a positive attitude, when quick results are expected, perfectionism of a person can delay you and frustrate you. In such cases, a perfectionist can turn into a difficult person.
• Bossy type: Overly controlling people may irritate you, thus, can become difficult people to cope with.
• Aggressive people: They are hard to bear. Aggressive or offensive behavior is unacceptable in social life. It is a nightmare to cooperate with offensive people, which is why they fall into the class of difficult people.
• Submissive people: Researchers place submissive people into the group of difficult people as well. They become difficult to deal with as lack of confidence makes them under-performers. This can be a source of frustration for people who work with them.
• Rumor mongers: Rumor mongers are a conspicuous threat to any relationship. They can hurt interpersonal life to great extent. It is for this anti-social trait, rumor mongers are placed into the group of difficult people.

Ways To Deal With Difficult People

Dealing with difficult people is a distress for many. However, there are psychologically proven ways to go easy on them. According to Preferred Training Networks, Australia’s first referred training network, dealing with a difficult person requires special skill-sets and professional approach. Notably, dealing with a difficult person is not trying to change them; it is not worth your efforts. Instead, find out the ways of progressively coping with them. Here are a few effective ways to get along with difficult people.

Identify The Type Of Difficulty

What if the person you met is just having a bad day? Do not fall into quick conclusions that they are a difficult person. Observe for consistency and recurrence levels of behavior traits to identify a difficult person.

Be A Good Listener

Good listeners can be real healers, especially when it comes to behavioral traits. Listening to a frustrated person can make them feel acknowledged. In return, good listeners are accepted, appreciated and they enjoy healthy relationships. Listening is a clear indication of respect and dignity towards the other person. Therefore, it assists employees in building relationships with colleagues. It is an important step in coping with a difficult person to listen to him/her.

Don’t Be Defensive

Acting defensive will only worsen the situation. Being defensive to an arrogant or offensive person will only kickoff open fight between you. It is always better to stay calm and soothe the situation.

Analyze The Scene

When your are frustrated with a difficult person, analyze the situation before ever you spring into reaction. Ask yourself a few questions and try to find the cause and a possible solution to alleviate the situation.

• What kicked-off the situation?
• What emotional outcome may occur?
• How does the difficult person react to you?
• What is the best possible way to ease the scene?

These questions will give you an outlook into the actual problems and will give you best possible ways to dealing with your difficult person.

Have Self Control

Self control is the key. You need to maintain self control, particularly, when you confront a difficult person. This positive attitude will improve the situation. It can reduce your reaction intensity and, in turn, conciliate the scene. Controlling yourself will reduce the outburst of emotions.

Acknowledge It

Finally, acknowledge the fact that you will always have to cooperate with difficult people in the society. Expect too many difficult person across your daily life. This acknowledgment will save you from surprise encounters with difficult people. Also know the fact that every irritating or frustrating person you meet with may not, in reality, be a difficult person. You cannot brand a person as a difficult person just because he acts beyond your co-worker expectations.