Leading Teams

Dealing With Difficult Team Members

From time-to-time everyone comes across someone they find it difficult to work
with. However, your ability to work with your team and foster a relationship of
openness and trust will increase your overall effectiveness and get you the
results you want.

It’s also important to remember that the fact that someone disagrees with you
does not necessarily make them difficult, so don’t react defensively or
aggressively to objections. Try to view them as difficulties to be overcome rather
than as attempts to undermine you.

Of course some people just seem to thrive on being difficult, which can be
extremely wearing and can make it hard for you to try and develop your business
in the way that you would like.

Before we start looking for solutions to dealing with difficult team members, it is
important to understand why people can be difficult.

Show slide – Why are people difficult?

Talk delegates through slide and discuss any issues raised.

 ASK: Does this seem familiar to anyone?

Show slide – What can you do about it?

Talk delegates through slide.

People are a complex mix of characteristics. However, there are certain aspects
of their characteristics you may be able to spot in the 10 different behaviour types
I am about to show you. These were developed by a gentleman by the name of
‘Robert M. Bramson’ in his book ‘Dealing with Difficult People’.

Show slide – 10 Difficult Behaviour Types

Exercise – 5 minutes
Please turn to your workbooks on the page ‘Dealing with Difficult People’, where
you can see each of the ten different behaviour types together with a description.
Spend 5 minutes looking over the descriptions for each.

Activity – 10 minutes

Place delegates into pairs and give each pair a selection of the common
behaviour types depending on the size of the group.

Next, ask them to discuss how they feel they would deal with the types they have
been given with their partner and then fill in the ‘Coping methods’ for that type on
the table.

When they have completed this, review the answers as a group and ask each
group to take notes on the one’s they were not working on.

Activity – 10 minutes

Place the laminated ‘behaviour type’ sheets around the room.

Explain to the delegates that you would like them to stand next to the behaviour
that they feel is most like them!

When they are stood next to the behaviour type they feel is most like them, ask
them what the positive points are to the behaviour type. If there are any
behaviour types that do not have a person next to them, ask for feedback on
what delegates think may be the positive points to that particular type.

As we have demonstrated, there are many positives to each different behaviour

type. It is important to recognise this and consider the outcome that we would like
from a situation, rather than focusing purely on the individual’s behaviour.

Now consider the individuals that you have in your team. Where do they fall on
this table? You now have the tools to overcome these issues. Let’s summarise a
strategy for you. Firstly, when you have a bit of time to think about the issues,
you can use the following strategy.