Managing difficult people
Introduction
According to Serrat (32), difficult people are those individuals who are endowed with some hard personality traits or some emotional characteristics which makes it difficult for other people to communicate with them. It is always important to cope with these people by developing some skills which accommodate them so as to maintain a conducive working environment. This will only be possible if we develop the art of understanding our own behavior as well as their behavior. This paper will clearly depict for different types of difficult people and how they can be managed by assessment of behavior.
There are for different types of difficult people whom we face in our daily life. The first category of these people are called downers and are groups of people who always have a bad thing to say. They complain, criticize and judge others and thus it’s impossible to please these people (Martin, 45). The second group of difficult people are the Know it All people who don’t like accepting when they are in the wrong. They like to show-off and will try as much as possible to impress you. The third category are the passives or the weaklings. These people don’t like contributing in case there is a difficult situation to be dealt with but instead, they leave you to do the hard part. The last category comprises of tanks. They only like their ways and don’t like being defeated. They will do anything to ensure they get it. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
Personal behavior assessment
Behaviors can be summarized in terms of four basic patterns. These includes those in-control and responsive to others, those in- control and not responsive to others, those not in- control and responsive to others and finally the ones not in-control and not responsive to others. The table below will assess my behavior.
| Behavior pattern | Personal assessment | |
| A | In-control and responsive to others | Yes |
| B | In- control and not responsive to others | No |
| C | Not in- control and responsive to others | No |
| D | Not in-control and not responsive to others | No |
The above table shows that am always ready to respond to what others say or the action of others. It also implies that am in a position to take my own control.
Assessing the behavior of my friend
| Behavior pattern | Assessment of my friend | |
| A | In-control and responsive to others | Yes |
| B | In- control and not responsive to others | No |
| C | Not in- control and responsive to others | Yes |
| D | Not in-control and not responsive to others | Yes |
The above table implies that my friend is a difficult person to stay with because she doesn’t talk volumes. This is because she is not responsive for what the other people. She however has a little art of being in control of what she does. We have a similarity in the first part because both of us are in- control but am much bothered by the fact that she is not responsive to others, even to me. She should therefore satisfy the need of being responsive to others.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is always important to come up with strategies of dealing or accommodating difficult people. We first need to understand their needs as people so as to create understanding. Also, it is important to leave them when they try to push their issues home by using unsupported means. Again, we should not let them to be toxic because they will harm us. These ways enables be to cope up with my friend since I cannot hurt her.
Reference
Martin, Graeme, and Sabina Siebert. Managing people and organizations in changing contexts. Routledge, 2016.
Serrat, Olivier. “Understanding and developing emotional intelligence.” Knowledge Solutions. Springer Singapore, 2017. 29-39.