Difficult People: How Do I Cope with Difficult People?

Many of my clients are staying connected to staff, customers, or members by hiring me to deliver virtual presentations.

I provide high-impact and high-content virtual presentations through Engagez, GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, Google Meet, Hopin, Loom, Meetview, Microsoft Teams, StreamYard, Webex, and Zoom.

You probably play a key role in your organization.  You may be in the center of the rough and tumble world of work and deal with critical colleague.

The key is to be prepared and only cover your agenda.  Make sure you are fully prepared with the top three issues that you need to discuss.  When providing progress reports to a difficult person, be sure you script “your comments” completely and leave room to write down “their comments” and their criticisms, because they will always have some.

Keep in mind, even if you said exactly what they would have said, because you said it’s wrong.  Even if you did exactly what they would have done, because you did it’s wrong.  I’m surprised we’re still surprised by it.

So, you need to re-define winning.  Re-defining winning is that you made it through the conversation without getting angry.  You kept your composure and didn’t take their criticisms personally.  Re-defining winning is that you didn’t drag that negative episode and anxiety into your next relationship or conversation that is innocent.  Re-defining winning is recognizing that you handled the interaction with the difficult person like a true professional.

If you develop the reputation as a person that can handle criticism without becoming defensive, you will be recognized as a valued resource. Be highly self-monitoring in your responses and coach yourself into becoming a true professional, even if you are surrounded by unprofessional individuals.

If you need to find a keynote speaker, plenary speaker, breakout speaker, concurrent session speaker, seminar leader, or workshop facilitator who can deliver in-person, virtually, or via prerecorded session, Kit Welchlin, M.A., CSP, CVP, is a nationally recognized professional motivational speaker and author and can be found at www.welchlin.com or www.SeminarsOnStress.com.