- Our brains have a natural response to difficult people that causes stress and anxiety.
- Conflict with difficult people can lead to turnover, absenteeism, and project failures.
- We can change our framework for dealing with difficult people by changing how we label them.
- Behavioral intelligence has four quadrants: explaining existing behaviors, predicting future behaviors, influencing others’ behaviors, and controlling our own behaviors.
- Asking questions is one of the best ways to explain behavior and can lead to better understanding and communication.
Learning Outcomes
- Understanding the impact of difficult people on our physical and mental health, as well as their effect on workplace productivity.
- Recognizing common archetypes of difficult people and the behaviors associated with them.
- Developing a framework for internal operating and behavioral intelligence to better handle difficult people.
- Learning how to explain behaviors and avoid biases when dealing with difficult people.
- Acquiring strategies for influencing and controlling our own behaviors when interacting with difficult people.
Key Takeaways
- We cannot control other people’s behaviors, but we can control our own reactions and behaviors when dealing with difficult people.
- Labeling people as “difficult” or other negative terms can create biases and hinder our ability to understand and handle their behaviors.
- Asking questions to better understand a difficult person’s behavior can help us develop a more empathetic and effective response.
- Developing behavioral intelligence can help us better predict and influence the behaviors of difficult people.
- Developing coping mechanisms for dealing with difficult people can improve our physical and mental health and help us avoid workplace conflicts.
Actionable Insights
- Practice self-awareness and recognize physical and emotional signs of stress when interacting with difficult people.
- Reframe the way we label and think about difficult people to avoid negative biases.
- Develop the habit of asking questions to better understand difficult people’s motivations and behaviors.
- Learn to predict and influence the behaviors of difficult people by developing behavioral intelligence.
- Implement coping mechanisms like mindfulness, exercise, or seeking support from colleagues to better handle interactions with difficult people.
