Tips for Dealing with Difficult People

Unfortunately, the world isn’t filled with great communicators; it is more dominated by difficult people.

• Other people will bring knowledge, skills, and more persuasive power in handling a difficult person.
• Listen to the difficult person and let them express their point of view. It will help you understand more about why they are difficult. This tip alone can be enough to deal with the person as you allow the person to let off some steam. Listening honestly, actively, and empathically will make the person feel understood and bridge the interpersonal gap between the two of you. You gain little or zero information about the situation by talking.
• Feel miserable is only damaging to you and will not assist you in solving the problem
• Take responsibility for how you feel, stop blaming, and remind yourself that the personal's difficulty is their problem.
• Like the previous tip, take responsibility and look at your weaknesses, mistakes, and improve on them. Practice the Japanese principle of Kaizen where you make small continual improvements for an overall large change. You could be tipping fuel over the fire and removing your contribution to the problem will reduce the person’s difficult attitude.
• When we see someone in a negative spotlight it can take a while to shift that negative understanding into a positive spotlight – even when the person has not been difficult for sometime.
• Perhaps you are the problem, their father was diagnosed with cancer, or they are in financial trouble.Having an open mind that allows for the other person’s point of view and possible explanations for their behavior
• Keep conditioning the person’s behavior, and you will soon see a change.
• Another day can bring different possibilities. Emotions, thoughts, and attitudes change all the time and having some downtime is often beneficial for healthy communication. Giving the two of you some space gives both of you time to think the problems through and cool down your emotions.

Difficult people are everywhere so you can probably begin using these tips today!

1. Rights and Responsibility
2. Stop Becoming a Victim
3. Being Apart of the Problem
4. Keep an Open Mind
5. Control Criticism
6. Behavioral Conditioning
7. Walking Away