How to Deal with Difficult People

Don't let problem people get to you!

Whether it's a manager who keeps moving the goal posts, an uncooperative colleague, negative friend, or critical family member, some people are just plain hard to get along with. Often, your immediate response may be to shrink or sulk, become defensive or attack. But there are smarter moves to make when dealing with difficult people. This book explains how to cope with a range of situations with difficult people and to focus on what you can change.

This book will help you to:

• Understand what makes difficult people tick and how best to handle them
• Learn ways to confidently stand up to others and resist the urge to attack back
• Develop strategies to calmly navigate emotionally-charged situations
• Deal with all kinds of difficult people — hostile, manipulative and the impossible
• Know when to choose your battles, and when to walk away

Why let someone else's bad attitude ruin your day? This second edition of How to Deal With Difficult People arms you with all the tools and tactics you need to handle all kinds of people — to make your life less stressful and a great deal easier.

Introduction vii

Part One Dealing With Difficult People 1

1 Difficult People and Their Difficult Behaviour 3

2 Is It You? 19

3 Communicating With Difficult People 49

4 Standing Up to Difficult People 75

Part Two Putting It Into Practice 103

5 Dealing With Direct Hostility 105

6 Dealing With Indirect Hostility 129

7 Dealing With Passive People 159

Part Three When All Else Fails 177

8 Dealing With Impossible People 179

9 Speaking Up and Standing Up for Other People: Being an Active Bystander 201

Conclusion 213

About the Author 217

Acknowledgements 219

Index 221

Gill Hasson is a bestselling author and careers coach with over 25 years’ experience in the areas of personal and career development. She’s a freelance tutor and teacher in mental health issues and delivers training for adult education organisations, voluntary and business organisations, and the public sector.

Simple strategies to keep the problem people in your life at bay

This second edition of How to Deal with Difficult People arms you with the tools and tactics you need to handle all sorts of difficult people: the highly critical, the uncooperative, the incessantly negative, and the downright mean. In the book, Gill Hasson helps you understand what makes difficult people tick and how to deal with them.

You’ll explore the best ways to confidently stand up to others while resisting the urge to attack back. You’ll also discover how to calmly navigate emotionally charged situations and handle all kinds of difficult people, from the hostile to the manipulative and the just plain impossible, without shrinking, sulking, or becoming defensive.

Don’t let someone else’s bad attitude ruin your day. How to Deal with Difficult People is the perfect resource for anyone who’s ever been forced to interact with challenging personalities. It offers proven tactics and time-tested strategies that will make your life less stressful and much easier.