Dealing With Difficult Behaviours

Dealing With Difficult Behaviours

You know that person. That one who disrupts every meeting with their negativity, that colleague who is doing everything passive-aggressively to sabotage unit decisions or the Customer who is out to make an awful day for you. We’ve all been there, marvelling at why some people bring drama with them wherever they go and what we can do about it in a professional capacity.

Thing is though, challenging behaviour isn’t really about you, but how you respond to it, absolutely is. Having seen too many good people burn out because they didn’t know how to deal with situations like this, I’ve learned that specific approaches can work. Not the well-intended but naïve “just think positive” advice you might read in a lot of books, but hands-on techniques that you can call on when someone is being unreasonable, hostile or difficult.

This is not a course in changing other people, it is a course in changing yourself. It is about changing how you react so you can remain calm, professional and effective when others are not. You will discover why people are such a pain in the ass (as if it’s usually not personal), recognise the warning signs, prevent and intercept aggravating events, and at the end of the day, what to do in the heat of the moment when someone is driving you nuts.

What You'll Learn

You’ll figure out how to stay chill when someone’s poking at your soft spots (and believe me, they will). We’ll address the difference between assertive and aggressive responses, and not just because there’s a very fine line and you don’t want to cross it. You will learn LINE BY LINE what to say in the crucial opening seconds to establish your boundaries and de escalate tension, rather than making everything worse, and the specific language for setting boundaries without starting World War Three.

We’re also going to look at the more difficult things like people you work with who love to get a rise out of you, customers you can’t seem to say no to, and how to ditch those passive aggressive moves that seem to drive all of us crazy. You will have scripts to guide you through the most common situations, and you will also learn how to document incidents correctly when they do go too far.

And most importantly, you’ll find out how to prevent many difficult situations from erupting at all by building better relationships with difficult individuals and how effective techniques for dealing with difficult people create environments where people are heard and respected.

Concluding Remarks

After this session, you’ll have a go-to arsenal of tactics that actually hold up in real workplace scenarios. You’ll find yourself better equipped to deal with those challenging personalities, how to shield your own well-being while remaining professional, and when it’s time to escalate issues up to management. And most importantly, you’ll stop taking challenging behavior personally and start seeing it as what it really is – typically, someone else’s bad day, failure to communicate effectively, or unmet needs that have nothing to do with you.

Available in Perth and Online