What To Do When You Encounter A Difficult Personality At Work

Encountering challenging personalities at work is a common experience for many employees. The situation is so bad that most people learn to accept it as a reality of life. 

Of course, when you have to interact with these people, it’s rarely pleasant. So, how can you manage them while protecting your career?

Practice Active Listening

You’ll want to start by learning how to communicate with tact and professionalism. Understanding how to reflect on what you hear and showing understanding is often critical for defusing these situations. 

Many times, when you listen actively, you build rapport. When people with challenging personalities can see that you understand them, they are far more likely to want to de-escalate. 

Set Clear Boundaries

You also want to ensure that you’re setting clear boundaries. Firmly establishing the limits of acceptable and unacceptable behavior is critical. 

You often see this approach in public spaces. However, only a minority of employees apply it to their private lives. 

For example, if someone is being overly critical of you, please acknowledge this and redirect the conversation in a more productive manner. Don’t allow feedback to turn into a bashing session. 

Change Your Communication Style

Of course, another way to address these challenges is to adjust your communication style. The more you can tailor your message to their personality, the better. 

This skill is challenging to learn because it requires understanding people. However, once you have it in mind, you can be more direct with people who thrive on directness and more tactful with everyone else. 

While it might sound like a small thing, being able to adapt to others is highly effective, and people notice. Whenever they interact with you, they feel great. 

Focus On Issues, Not People

Another approach is to focus on issues, rather than individuals. If you understand how things work and what’s gone wrong, you’re able to avoid attacking anyone’s character (which will inevitably lead to emotional harm). 

The more you can do this, the more you can maintain a solutions-oriented focus. You don’t want a situation where the conversation devolves into verbal attacks. 

Understand Their Perspective

It’s also helpful to understand the difficult person’s perspective when they try to start an argument. Often, they have a particular viewpoint that they want you to comprehend, even if you don’t think it’s valid. 

For example, if something at work is stressing them out, then show that you understand this. Let them know that you’re on the same page as them if that’s possible. 

Escalate When Necessary

Finally, it is worth remembering that sometimes you need to escalate in business, and that being nice to some individuals doesn’t work. Yes, you might want to come to an amicable conclusion, but that’s not always possible. 

During this process, document your interactions. Ensure that you follow company procedural guidelines to the letter, and that any actions you take to escalate do not violate the law.