Executive Coaching for Working with Difficult People - Emotional Intelligence at Work

Are you working in an organization where leaders are good at dealing with difficult people? Are the leaders in your organization savvy regarding emotional intelligence?

One of the most powerful questions one can ask oneself is “How do I effectively deal with difficult people?” Emotionally intelligent leaders confront and deal with difficult situations.

Are you good at managing conflict with others? Do you inspire others by having a coaching style of leadership that facilitates communication? Are you adept at dealing with difficult people and strong emotions?

Dealing with Difficult People

They’re everywhere. Walk into any workplace and you’ll find them. Regardless of your company’s success or employee-friendly culture, difficult people pose challenges for managers and team leaders each day.

Some are angry; some are anxious. Others are fearful, negative and obstinate. Some spark frequent disputes with their peers. Still others quietly stonewall and fail to follow through on commitments.

You cannot afford to avoid dealing with difficult people. Whether they’re direct reports or peer managers, their frustrating behaviors will take a toll on your ability to manage others and produce stellar results.

The more serious forms of difficult behavior are, in some ways, easier to deal with because they are blatant and often illegal. In cases of harassment, sabotage or physical threats, swiftly follow your clearly outlined company policies and implement the appropriate consequences.

But long before overt infringements arise, there are subtle forms of damaging behaviors that should not be tolerated or allowed to escalate. Confronting and dealing with these sticky situations will prevent more serious problems in the future.

Unfortunately, many managers avoid dealing with difficult people and strong emotions in the workplace. “People problems” are often cited as the most challenging — and time-consuming — part of a manager’s job. One study found that 42 percent of managers’ time is spent on defusing office conflict.

Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you become an inspiring leader who effectively manages conflict. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.

Comments

[Bennet Simonton]

The link for the article "Leadership, Good or Bad" is
http://www.bensimonton.com/Leadership,%20Good%20or%20Bad.htm

Best regards, Ben

[Bennet Simonton]

Most managers are their own worst enemy by using the traditional top-down command and control approach to managing people.

This approach creates conflict and a lack of cooperation and courtesy. How?

Top-down by its nature demeans and disrespects employees in the "shut up and listen" mode. By ignoring each employee's need to be heard and be respected, top-down demotivates, demoralizes and disrespects employees thus "leading" them to treat their work, their customers, each other and their bosses with the same level of disrespect. Conflict is a natural byproduct of disrespect.

To better understand the right and wrong ways to manage people, please read the article "Leadership, Good or Bad"

Best regards, Ben
Author "Leading People to be Highly Motivated and Committed"