Coping With Difficult People

We come across difficult people every day in our personal and professional lives. It could be your customers and clients who expect way more from you than is reasonable, it could be your relatives wanting to bully you into submission and it could also be a complete stranger looking for a good fight.

Whatever the situation and circumstances, it is totally up to you how you react to the same. Most people tend to go on the defensive when questioned or cornered. But this strategy generally causes adverse repercussions that can make the situation spiral out of control.

In order to defuse the situation, you need to adopt certain strategies and methods that will help you to get back in control. We know that it is extremely difficult to calm down when somebody is angry at you, but this is the best way to move forward in a dignified way. Sanjay Jhunjhunwala is a motivational blogger par excellence. He writes motivational blogs that provide you with a great deal of information.

I am Sanjay Jhunjhunwala, a motivational speaker and blogger. I am the CEO of sanjayjhunjhunwala.org based at Kolkata and will educate and inform you with different ways of handling difficult situations through my motivational blogs and speeches.

This article provides you with a number of tips and pointers that will help you handle difficult people. It will show you how to get the situation back into your control when the going gets tough. In this way, you with be able to change your reactions to adverse circumstances in order to get through them effectively.

Read on to find out how you can do so by making note of these suggestions that will go a long way in solving the difficulties that you face in your life.

1.     Pay Attention and Listen

Whenever there is a tense situation where someone is so angry that he or she seems out of control, the best thing you should do is pay attention and listen. Listening to the person who has a problem is the best way of showing him or her acknowledgment.

If you give the feeling that you are willing to give a patient ear, then more than half of your battle is already won. Hence, try to understand the problem that the other person is facing. This could be the key to solving the entire fiasco in the least possible time.

2.     Remain Calm

Remaining calm when the altercation is in progress will pay big dividends in the long run. While our natural reaction will be to scream and shout to defend ourselves, the smarter strategy would be to remain calm and composed so that we can bring the situation back to normal.

3.     Be Non-Judgemental

While it is very easy to judge people and accuse them of various wrongdoings, it does not help to make the work process smoother in any way. Hence, the smart tip would be not to judge others and don’t take sides as this can make the situation out of control. Just be smart enough to manipulate the situation so that you always get the upper hand. Sanjay Jhunjhunwala can give more information on this topic. He is the CEO of sanjayjhunjhunwala. org based in Kolkata.

4.     Show Respect and Dignity

Whenever somebody is angry at you, it is important to show him or her dignity and respect. Hence, don’t go overboard by giving reasons why you are right. Instead, try to reason it out with them so that they get the feeling that you genuinely want to do your best to defuse the tension.

5.     Uncover the Hidden Need

Try to gauge that why the person is behaving in this way. What are the gains available for him or her? Or in another way, how will he avoid something that he doesn’t want to do? If you find out the hidden need that is driving this person mad, then you may get some insight in solving the problem effectively.

6.     Find a Helping Hand

If an irate customer is shouting and screaming at you, then find a colleague or even your boss who will know how to handle the situation better. Fighting back never helps as it harms your reputation and the problem is anyways not solved.

7.     Don’t Try To Make Them Quiet

Always remember that telling an angry person to quieten down will always backfire as they want to vent their anger and frustration. Hence, allow them to do so and in this process, try to find out some tricks that will help you resolve the conflict in a much more amicable way.

8.     Don’t Say That You Understand

Telling someone who is angry that you understand their situation perfectly only makes things worse. They definitely don’t agree with you. Hence, avoid using such terminology. What could work here is saying that you would like to understand the problem that they are facing in a much better way. This will help in portraying that you genuinely want to solve the problem and won’t just rub it off your back.

9.     Don’t Smile or Be Humorous

When someone is shouting, you might think of smiling or cracking a joke to lighten the mood. However, this strategy is going to backfire as you are doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. Hence, no matter how friendly you try to be, it isn’t going to work out as you need to get serious and solve the problem by expressing yourself in a calm and assertive way.

10.Don’t Defend Yourself

Now, this is the most common mistake that people do when faced with a confrontation. Most of us tend to take things personally and try to fight back by defending ourselves. But this only makes the situation even worse and things tend to spiral out of control.

Always remember that it is highly possible that the other person has a problem with the situation and not with you. Hence, always make it a point to not take things personally and this will go against you. Hence, it is better if you view the situation objectively. This can only be achieved if you have a cool frame of mind. Hence, do your best to stay calm and composed to defuse the explosive situation at hand.

So just follow the above-mentioned tips and this will help you immensely in coping with difficult people!