Dealing with Difficult People and Unreasonable Behaviour at Work

We will all encounter unreasonable behaviour or a 'difficult' colleague at some point.

Often this behaviour has no real effect on us, but we can find it uncomfortable to observe. Sometimes though, it can cause us real difficulty and make our working lives unpleasant.

In this fascinating and extremely popular workshop, you'll discover how to prevent many ‘difficult' behaviours as well as a wealth of tools and techniques to deal with those which arise regardless of your attempts to prevent them.

We'll explore a range of specific behaviours, including:

• Aggressive people – the verbal bully and the intimidating person
• The extraterrestrial (the person from another planet)
• The victim – the person who believes that the world and you are somehow plotting against them
• The “mood Hoover” – the negative person who sucks the positive energy out of a room and has a default setting of “no”
• The know-all – the person who knows more than anyone else about everything and is determined to prove it
• The lazy person – the person who does the least possible in the greatest possible time
• The yes but no but – the person who talks a good talk and fails to deliver

What you'll learn

• How to prevent difficult situations
• It takes two to tango – how our behaviour may contribute to others' behaviour
• How to listen objectively (without making assumptions)
• How to create more productive working relationships
• How to deal with specific types of difficult behaviour
• How to give feedback that works
• How to manage difficult conversations
• How to deal with conflict
• Understanding and preventing difficult behaviour
• What drives others' behaviour?

Developing skills for handling difficult people

• Learning to recognise your own state and choose your behaviours
• Aggressive, assertive and passive behaviours
• Learning to be calm in the face of difficult behaviour
• Dealing with criticism from others
• Reframing a situation and putting things in perspective

Feedback and difficult conversations

• Structures for giving feedback

Managing conflict

• A model for conflict management
• Ten top tips for dealing with confrontation

Next steps

• What will you do differently as a result of the workshop?

Who is it for?

This course is suitable for delegates at all levels who may be faced with challenging behaviour in the workplace. This course will focus primarily on the needs of people facing challenging behaviour from staff, co-workers and managers. The content may also be helpful for customer or public facing roles, because the techniques and behaviours learned will be applicable to those situations, but much of the time will be spent on dealing with difficult colleagues.

This course is suitable for delegates at all levels who may be faced with challenging behaviour in the workplace. This course will focus primarily on the needs of people facing challenging behaviour from staff, co-workers and managers. The content may also be helpful for customer or public facing roles, because the techniques and behaviours learned will be applicable to those situations, but much of the time will be spent on dealing with difficult colleagues.