Managing Difficult People Summary
4 min read ⌚
A Survival Guide For Handling Any Employee
The negative people, the bullies, the social maniacs have bad manners.
Companies know very well that every department is not deprived of these complicated characters.
The author gives a few tips on how to handle them.
Who Should Read “Managing Difficult People”? And Why?
Probably Marilyn Pincus doesn’t reveal the reasons for writing “Managing Difficult People“.
This book is intended not only for managers but also for people who lack communication skills needed to forge interpersonal relations.
Confront the workplace bullies, lead with integrity, adapt to the environment and open your eyes in the back of your head.
Marilyn Pincus provides its readers with first-class advises on how to come out as a winner by getting the best out of any situation. We emphatically prescribe this book to new managers or any other individuals floating in managerial waters.
About Marilyn Pincus
Marilyn Pincus is an American author, management consultant, and manager, born in Sun Lakes, Arizona in the U.S. Her writing career has been praised by many recognized authors and celebrities.
Despite her talent for writing, Marylin is also an important member of the International Association of Business Communicators.
Pincus wrote several other books including Boost Your Presentation IQ; Everyday Business Etiquette; Interview Strategies That Lead to Job Offers and Projecting a Positive Image.
As a writer, she also wrote articles for major business publications.
“Managing Difficult People Summary”
If you have ever come across a truly negative person, you are familiar with its “behavioral-code”. Their attitude disturbs other associates, making it almost impossible to create an atmosphere of support.
The only way to make a change is to intervene. An authoritative person (probably a manager) should lay out clear ethical restrictions and norms that must be obeyed. Nevertheless, you cannot re-design every worker’s mind, but you should put your managerial skills to the test.
It true that some employees are needed to create value for the organization using their skills despite their adverse nature. The danger lies in the working environment; the cohesion in the company comes first, since one person is not enough to pull all the strings.
The real threat comes from these negative outbursts which can extend far beyond one person’s head and affect other associates. Maintaining the balance is your key task as a manager – as simple as that.
When you are dealing with hard-to-handle personalities, use the slogan, “Manager, know thyself.”
Understanding your associates will give you the advantage in verbal conflicts which occur quite often in every organization. Hopefully, people will you see your criteria for evaluating success (if the manager doesn’t lack communicating skills). Such an attitude is sufficient for achieving full victory.
Your job is to separate those with low communication abilities and those with strong egos. You as a manager will handle their attitude better if you analyze the personalities behind the curtain.
Hard-to-handle associates come from every culture, nation or religion (without exception) in all shapes and sizes. The famous Bully; The I Know everything guy; The Whiner; The Silent Voice; The Social Butterfly; The I’m better than you; The NewComer; The Shrewd Manipulator; The Cry-Baby, etc.
Everyone knows at least one in each category. Don’t get your hopes up, that by managing them the organization will blossom. Being able to guide them is beneficial, but remember – They are not your only concern!
It doesn’t matter how your life will unfold in the future; in any case, you need to improve your managing abilities.
Most managers or human-resource professionals looks at this book as a handy guide, an instruction manual for supervising difficult characters within the organization.
This group is not perhaps the ones who compete against others, instead, they use mind games to accomplish their goals.
Manager’s task is to discover any troublemaker in the organization, and enforce a punishment. By all means, the main recipe for success is composed of managerial abilities and interpersonal skills of the superiors.
Even if you find yourself working for a notable company and having a good salary; it’d never be good enough if tension is sensed in the air.
There are plenty of activities that no technology cannot replace, one of them is the human resource management.
Key Lessons from “Managing Difficult People”
1. Deal with negativity
2. Challenge potential bullies
3. Help the people with poor communication skills
Deal with negativity
Negative people are less productive and have all the tendencies of a loner. You can recognize them by feeling the energy emerging from them, filling the air with distrust.
The virus of negative thinking is a serious illness in every group. If you give those loners a wide berth, they’ll turn and bite you.
Managing them is your no.1 priority – for the sake of the organization.
Challenge potential bullies
Bullies tend to become the biggest challenge for any manager.
Unfortunately, those schoolyard boys grow up to become adult troublemakers. The society has done a terrible job handling them, and now it is your turn.
Initially, you must try understanding the source of their negative behavior. If nothing else works, the matter must be transferred to a trained psychotherapist.
Help the people with poor communication skills
These folks always strive harder than others. However, their communication skills are not-satisfactory.
Your job is to motivate them to explore the problems and find the breaking point. It doesn’t mean that they are toxic co-workers, simply, they are not able to share their ideas and thoughts with the rest of the group.
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“Managing Difficult People” Quotes
The bottom line is, you're communicating with your staff whether you like it or not. So take control of your actions and send messages that help everybody to succeed. Click To Tweet Unless being precisely on time is crucially important, don't raise the issue with an employee who is occasionally late. Click To Tweet Be honest and ethical in all of your business dealings - period! Click To Tweet Negaholics don't earn accolades in the workplace and seldom climb high on the ladder of success. Click To Tweet Negative employees affect everyone around them with their 'downer' attitudes. Their behavior poisons the work environment. Click To Tweet
Our Critical Review
The Author of “Managing Difficult People” book Marilyn Pincus refers to several main aspects of handling the pressure when having a decision-making role.
You can learn how to deal with human resource issues from top-to-bottom in three ways: start from yourself, get in touch with a great mentor or read this extraordinary book.
