dealing with difficult people

[difficult people] - 20. Aligning Visions: Setting Mutual Expectations

March 30, 2025

The Expectations Talk: A Story of Finding Common Ground Wei sat in her car, rehearsing the conversation one last time. In an hour, she'd be meeting with...

[difficult people] - 19. The Art of Managing Up

March 16, 2025

The View from the Middle: A Story About Managing Up Lisa stared at the email from her boss, Marcus, feeling that familiar knot in her stomach. Another last-...

[difficult people] - 18. The Agile Professional - being flexible and adaptable at work

March 9, 2025

Bend, Don't Break: A Story of Workplace Adaptability When Maria joined the product development team, she thought her biggest challenge would be learning the...

[difficult people] - 17. Self-Care Strategies when Relating is Tough

March 2, 2025

##Self-Care in Dealing with Difficult People When Self-Care Isn't Selfish: A Story of Workplace Survival Jamie's coffee had gone cold – again. She'd been so...

[difficult people] - 16. Stress Less: Strategies for Managing

February 23, 2025

##Dealing with Stress Ongoing dealings with difficult people will inevitably increase your stress levels. What can be done about that? Finding Your Calm: A...

[difficult people] - 15. Communication Strategies for Every Professional

February 16, 2025

##Communication: Skills in Communication When dealing with difficult people in the workplace, improving certain communication skills can significantly...

[difficult people] - 13. Effective Documentation: A Key to Clear Communication

February 15, 2025

Looking back over the list, somehow I didn’t send this one through! Too many in this series perhaps. At some point in your interactions with difficult...

[difficult people] - 14. Workplace Issues: When to call HR or Family

February 9, 2025

As we enter the final phase of this series on dealing with difficult people in the workplace, I wanted to let you know the thinking behind a change in...

[difficult people] - 12. EQ: Emotional Intelligence for Conflict Resolution

January 31, 2025

Conflict: Building Emotional Intelligence The level of emotional intelligence (EI / EQ) you’re able to bring to an interaction with a difficult person,...

[difficult people] - 11. Being an Ally: Supporting Colleagues Through Conflict

December 2, 2024

Conflict: Supporting People Through Conflict If there’s a workplace conflict, it seems vanishingly likely that you will be the only person impacted. How can...

[difficult people] - 10. Mastering Conflict Resolution

October 8, 2024

Conflict: Conflict Resolution Skills Conflict is inevitable in the workplace; there will always be a difference of opinions, and people with different levels...

[difficult people] - 9. Balancing the Scales: Navigating Power Imbalances in Conflict

August 11, 2024

Conflict: Dealing Where There Is a Power Imbalance What happens when there's conflict with a difficult person, combined with a power imbalance? The...

[difficult people] - 8. Overcoming Gaslighting: Strategies for Empowerment and Recovery

August 4, 2024

##Conflict: Dealing with Gaslighting Last newsletter we talked about how to recognise gaslighting in the workplace; now we move on to talking about dealing...

[difficult people] - 7. Shedding Light on Gaslighting: Recognition and Response

July 26, 2024

##Conflict: Recognizing Gaslighting I still haven't made the time to watch the 1944 movie Gaslight - where a lady's husband keeps changing the environment...

[difficult people] - 6. Emotional Wellbeing at Work: Managing Draining Interactions

June 30, 2024

##Dealing with Emotionally Draining People One term for referring to someone who is emotionally draining is energy vampire - someone who leaves you feeling...

[difficult people] - 5. Working with people who are unreliable

June 16, 2024

Unreliable People There are two aspects to dealing with unreliable people in the workplace: dealing with their unreliability, but also maintaining the kind...

[difficult people] - 4. Rise Above the Rumors: How to Navigate Workplace Gossip

June 8, 2024

Dealing with Gossip There are probably worse things than being in a workplace that is filled with gossip, but where it is possible to stamp this out, it can...

[difficult people] - 3. Empathy at Work: Understanding and Collaboration

May 5, 2024

Empathy and Understanding One way to improve your working relationship with everyone, whether difficult or not - is to increase your empathy and...

[difficult people] - 2. Work effectively with people of different difficulties

April 7, 2024

Types of People: Easy to Work With / Moderate / Difficult As we start the discussion about how best to deal with difficult people, we start out by working...

[difficult people] - 1. Introduction to managing difficult people

March 10, 2024

We are back with a new series of newsletters. This time, we will be thinking through how we can deal with difficult people in the workplace. Here is a...

making better decisions - 21. What have we learned?

January 21, 2024

This email is the last in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 21. What have we learned? We have covered a lot in...

making better decisions - 20. Feedback Loops

December 11, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 20. Feedback Loops One of the biggest "aha" moments I had...

making better decisions - 19. Action-Learning Cycle

December 3, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 19. Action-Learning Cycle I had to look this one up. Action...

making better decisions - 18. How will you bring the decision into reality - what are the basic steps?

November 26, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 18. How will you bring the decision into reality - what are...

making better decisions - 17. Measure the decision against your own goals

November 21, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 17. Measure the decision against your own goals Sometimes...

making better decisions - 16. Making the decision using mindfulness to improve focus

October 6, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 16. Making the decision using mindfulness to improve focus...

making better decisions - 15. Feedback from others on your decision-making progress

October 3, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 15. Feedback from others on your decision-making progress...

making better decisions - 14. Simulation of the decision-making environment

September 30, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 14. Simulation of the decision-making environment One of...

making better decisions - 13. Reflective Practice

September 18, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 13. Reflective Practice Most of what we have covered so far...

making better decisions - 12. De Bono six thinking hats

September 13, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 12. De Bono six thinking hats I remember a session at an...

making better decisions - 11. PESTLE analysis

September 6, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 11. PESTLE analysis Some decisions involve deciding to...

making better decisions - 10. Cynefin framework - what kind of environment are you deciding in?

July 24, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 10. Cynefin framework - what kind of environment are you...

making better decisions - 9. Cost-benefit analysis of each option

July 9, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 9. Cost-benefit analysis of each option What does it mean...

making better decisions - 8. Decision-making trees to show different outcomes and weight them

June 19, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 8. Decision-making trees to show different outcomes and...

making better decisions - 7. Porter's Five Forces

June 5, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 7. Porter's Five Forces One digram that keeps appearing in...

making better decisions - 6. Choosing between different GPS routes

May 21, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 6. Choosing between different GPS routes Part of thinking...

making better decisions - 5. SWOT Analysis

April 30, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 5. SWOT Analysis While a pro/con analysis has minimal...

making better decisions - 4. Pros and Cons

April 28, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 4. Pros and Cons Thinking carefully through each possible...

making better decisions - 3. Tossing a Coin

April 16, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 3. Tossing a Coin When I first thought about this process...

making better decisions - 2. Magic 8-ball

April 7, 2023

This email is one in a series on decision-making. The first one is an introduction to the series. 2. Magic 8-ball One of the items that first springs to mind...

making better decisions - 1. introduction

April 4, 2023

I’ve been thinking for a while about the process of making decisions. A decision is any situation where we need to select between two or more options....

negotiating over an orange

June 24, 2022

ten. how do you divide an orange? One of the subjects I took during my MBA that was the most valuable was the elective on negotiation. There was a lot to...

Adventures in strange acronyms - EBITDA

April 17, 2022

nine. financial acronyms - EBITDA Last week when sending the newsletter about CAPM (capital asset pricing model), a friend told me that it was a term they'd...

how can you tell which of two options is better?

April 11, 2022

8. Making sense of risk and return. Out of all the MBA subjects I did, the one that I found least familiar was Corporate Finance - I don't have a background...

what is the anchor point of your career?

April 3, 2022

7. What is most important to you in your career? This one I'd forgotten about entirely, again from Executive Blueprint. In figuring out what to work on next,...

Are you trying to solve the right kind of problem?

March 27, 2022

six. How to identify the complexity of problem you’re solving. This week I went to a two-day training course (that’s three months absence from the halls of...

writing and then rewriting your goals

March 20, 2022

five. how to write goals that will stretch you but not make you despair. I was talking to a friend this week about the performance-review cycle, and the...

is the world ready for your idea?

March 14, 2022

four. An insight into whether your idea is going to work or not. There are a few concepts that keep coming up again and again in the MBA. An MBA is, in...

do you ever think back over what worked, and what didn't?

March 6, 2022

three. How to have reflective practice as a manager If your company has an annual performance review cycle, you probably take some time in the lead-up to...

what does it take to make changes

February 27, 2022

two. How to make changes One of the big challenges presented by studying later in life is the increasing challenge of making changes in the way you live....