Photo by: Charday Penn via Canva
We’ve all experienced a challenging person firsthand. It might be a call from an angry customer who missed their refund deadline because they didn’t read the receipt. Or maybe a colleague who isn’t on the same page and won’t budge. No matter the situation, there are many ways to deal with the person and still maintain a professional manner. Here are a few tips I’ve found helpful when faced with a challenging person or situation.
Remain Calm
Nothing makes a situation worse than adding fuel to the fire. It can be hard to remain calm when someone is upset, forcefully disagreeing with you, refusing to see beyond their perspective, etc. When someone is escalating a situation, it’s better to take a deep breath and assess before jumping to respond. When we respond too quickly, we often find ourselves matching the tone of the person we conflict with, which can make matters worse.
Find a Solution
Quite often, when someone is challenging you, it’s because they’re unhappy. For example, you may experience conflict with a colleague who was trained differently to perform the same task and is not open to other approaches. You might also find someone struggling with technology issues who comes across as combative when, in fact, they are insecure about their knowledge gap.
Try to find a solution that will help you both in the end—where they are happy, and you’ve met their needs. For example, attempt to perform the task their way, and if you see opportunities for improvement, pull from your own training. If they experience technology issues, walk them through the issue step by step or offer to screenshare so they can follow along on their own.
Smile
Now, a smile won’t work in every scenario as it can be read as condescending or flippant. But, if you combine a genuine smile with patience, staying calm, and proposing solutions, you can avoid causing further irritation. Maybe this person just found out a loved one has passed, or they have other personal issues that are affecting their mood or attitude. Whatever it might be, smile and be polite. Most of the time, this will calm the situation and allow the two of you to come up with a solution.
Keep in mind every circumstance is unique. As much as we commit all our efforts to helping the situation, it doesn’t always work. Try putting these tips into play the next time you are faced with a challenging person and see what happens! What strategies can you share to help deal with challenging people and situations?
If you’re a trainer looking to spot and prevent problems before they arise, know when to intervene, or gain an arsenal of techniques for handling problem people, these two workshops have you covered: Instructional Techniques for New Instructors and Advanced Instructional Techniques.
