Dealing With Difficult People

Interacting with challenging individuals within an organisation can create significant distress and unease for staff, who must interact with someone difficult to try and foster a good working relationship with them. The stress induced by difficult people can alter employees' usual behaviour patterns and affect their relationships with their co-workers. This can lead to a toxic, uncomfortable work environment and hamper productivity and morale.

The pressure of handling complex individuals may cause employees to internalise the behaviour, believing that they are somehow responsible for customers' or colleagues' rude or aggressive actions. This can have a detrimental effect on their self-esteem and spill over into both their professional and personal lives.

Difficult people are not limited to a specific setting. They can be encountered in various aspects of life, making it crucial for individuals to develop effective strategies for managing such interactions. Recognising difficult people's impact on staff members is essential for maintaining a healthy work environment.

The Symptoms of Difficult People

By acknowledging these individuals' challenges and implementing strategies to address them, organisations can help employees navigate them more effectively. Encouraging open communication, providing support, and fostering a culture of respect can mitigate the adverse effects of dealing with difficult people in the workplace. They may be difficult because they are:

• Rude by their nature.
• Must always have the last word.
• Naturally shout or raise their voice.
• Think that they are always right.
• Consistently undermine others.
• Do not listen.
• Refrain from honouring their commitments.

The Traits of Difficult People

An organisation's employees are its most valuable asset in the ongoing effort to enhance customer service. Every organisation must prioritise its staff's mental health and well-being more than anything else. Consistent training and frequent reminders are essential to guarantee that employees receive the necessary support and tools to excel in their roles.

By investing in the mental well-being of their staff, organisations can create a positive work environment that fosters employee productivity and satisfaction. This, in turn, leads to improved customer service and overall success for the organisation.

It is essential that organisations acknowledge the significance of prioritising the well-being of their employees' mental health and actively take measures to provide them with the necessary support in their respective positions. The mental well-being of staff must always be the primary concern of every organisation, which must consistently train and remind its people:

• That a Person's Behaviour is Not Personal: Usually, the difficult person has nothing personal against the staff. They are just difficult with everyone. Staff should accept that they are dealing with unacceptable behaviour, look for the person’s good qualities, and focus on those.
• To Act Normally: Dealing with a difficult person can make staff act differently from how they usually do. Staff can start to avoid them or behave differently towards them. Staff should try to be themselves and treat the problematic person like anyone else.
• Try to Understand the Difficult Person: The problematic person may behave in a challenging way for a reason. Staff should understand the difficult person and their point of view, as they may have issues that can be addressed to improve the relationship. It may be a tiny issue that is quickly resolved.
• Engage and Communicate: It is easy for communication to suffer with a difficult person. It is crucial for staff to communicate well with them and to listen to the difficult person to understand what they are trying to say and what they want.
• Build a Relationship With Trust: The problematic person may be the way they are because of a lack of trust in others or of others in them. Staff should spend time building a relationship and gaining confidence with the problematic person.
• Be Honest and Open: Staff should be honest and open when dealing with a difficult person. It is a promising idea to ask the problematic person what they want others to change to improve the relationship.
• Make the Difficult Person Feel Good: The problematic person may have low self-confidence or self-esteem. Staff should make the difficult person feel good about themselves by focusing on their strengths and good qualities.
• Focus On The Outcome: Staff should focus on the outcome they want to achieve in their relationship with the problematic person. This will help them stay focused on the objective and better deal with the person.
• Keep The Commitments and Deliver: When dealing with difficult people, staff must ensure they honour their commitments and deliver by the agreed deadlines. This will gain the problematic person’s respect and help to build a relationship with them.

Dealing With Conflictive People

Challenging people may also be encountered in the workplace, where conflict becomes inevitable between staff. People with different personalities, work styles, and opinions are bound to have disagreements occasionally.

Learning to manage workplace conflicts efficiently is the key to preventing them from affecting workplace efficiency and productivity overall. Below are the steps required of a facilitator, perhaps an organisational Team Leader, to deal with conflict resolution in the workplace:

• Identify the Source of the Conflict: The more information a facilitator has about the cause of a conflict, the more efficiently they can help resolve it. Facilitators need to allow both parties to share their side of the story. This will not only give them a chance to understand the situation better but also demonstrate their impartiality.
• Look Beyond The Incident: Often, it is not the situation that causes the conflict but a person’s perspective. This can cause anger to fester, leading to a shouting match or other visible evidence of a dispute. A facilitator can help both parties look beyond the triggering incident to see the real cause of the conflict.
• Request Solution: After getting each party’s viewpoint on the conflict and looking beyond the incident, the next step is identifying how the situation can be changed. The facilitator wants the disputants to stop fighting and start cooperating. This means steering the conflict away from finger-pointing and toward ways of resolving it.
• Identify Solutions Both Disputants Can Support: The facilitator must listen for the most acceptable action and point out the benefits of various solutions or ideas from each other's perspective and the organisation’s benefits.
• Agreement: The facilitator should try their best to get each person to agree to one of the alternatives identified in the above step. Meeting with the individuals and having an informal discussion may be sufficient. At the same time, some situations need something written, specifying actions and time frames.

Conflict is a common occurrence in the business world. Team Leaders play a crucial role in helping to resolve conflicts between parties within their organisation. Despite the fast-paced nature of operational life, taking the time to address different perspectives can lead to more effective conflict resolution.

It is essential to recognise that some level of conflict can be beneficial within a workplace, especially in a high-performing organisation. Team Leaders can improve the organisation's overall performance by dedicating time and effort to facilitating discussions and finding solutions.

Prioritising effective dispute resolution can have a positive impact on organisational success. Team Leaders should actively manage conflicts and promote a healthy work environment where differing viewpoints are acknowledged and addressed constructively. By doing so, they can help foster a culture of collaboration and productivity within the organisation.

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