Skilling Self to Better Manage Difficult People

Taylor says, ‘If you have a gift for the spoken and written word, you will always put your best foot forward. Being articulate is highly prized in today’s workplace, when time is at a premium and technology requires constant communication.’ However, to effectively communicate one needs to develop certain skills that enable communication and ability to get along with colleagues, persuade others to listen to one’s ideas and many more that are essential to manage people at work, more so the ‘Difficult People’.

Technical and professional skill are crucial to professional success; but to be successful, it is imperative that one has the required soft skills too – more commonly known as ‘People Skills’. There can be several instances or situations when one encounters difficult people in an organization, who come in the way of smooth operation and hinder the flow of work. Such difficult people come in different forms, but we have to cope with them. This is called ‘Man Management Skills’. This article tries to identify such difficult people and their undesirable behaviour, and also attempts to suggest some of the time-tested ways recommended by experts and KPs, with which one should be aware of, conversant with and equipped to use them. An attempt is also made to identify extent and types of difficult behaviour and the possible reasons thereof through a sample survey using predesigned questionnaire of randomly selected respondents in five sample educational institutions. These have been discussed briefly. List of skills and behaviours that one needs to develop is discussed, with examples.