Dealing With Conflict & Difficult People

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- Dealing With Conflict & Difficult People -

Course Overview

How you try and resolve interpersonal conflict and work with unreasonable or demanding customers or even colleagues is one of the most stressful situations any manager or employee can find him or herself in. Although this sort of behaviour is unwelcome and uncomfortable to experience, dealing with conflict or a difficult person is at times, unavoidable. But, the good news is that you don’t need to go through your working life “holding your breath” around these people.

This one-day training course will show participants how to recognise the basic causes of challenging behaviour and provide you with a range of practical tools and strategies to both manage and resolve these “stressful” workplace encounters.

By being part of this training, participants gain greater awareness of their emotional triggers and learn how to control them. So they won’t have to ignore or feel “sick” about dealing with difficult people or being involved in a disagreement or conflict again.

Key Learning Outcomes

What is conflict, and what is “difficult”?
Is all conflict bad, and should it be avoided?
Develop a clear understanding of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. What is above the line and below the line?
Understand why some people behave the way they do and what they are looking for
The emotional impact of ongoing conflict and difficult behaviour – yours and theirs
Recognise negative and aggressive behaviour patterns in customers or even colleagues
Understand and manage the situation rather than the person
How to encourage others to change non-productive behaviours without making them defensive or go on “the attack”
Identifying and dealing with the underlying causes of difficult behaviour
Practical ways you can take a positive approach to your relationships
Adopting a confident, professional and appropriate communication style

Training Outline

Morning Session

What are your examples of conflict situations at work?
What is ‘unacceptable’, ‘difficult behaviour’ and ‘conflict’?
What are people who are in conflict really wanting from you?
Why should you care about solving tough communication and conflicts with others? And what are the payoffs?
What causes people to be difficult (at times), or for conflict to arise, increase or continue?
Are all conflict or disagreements necessarily bad? When might conflict be beneficial or helpful?
The Thomas-Kilmann conflict instrument and debrief.
Understanding your preferred conflict management style.

Afternoon Session

The 5 stages of a conflict. How conflict often starts and how it can get out of control?
How we communicate. The four communication styles.
Will you accept the “gift”?
Taking a proactive approach.
STEP 1: Examine tour heart before you start.
STEP 2: Make neutral observations, or tell your story.
STEP 3: Ask questions. Be curious, not furious.
STEP 4: Acknowledge and validate feelings.
STEP 5: Explore areas of agreement.
STEP 6: Agree on a plan of action.
Role plays (based upon participant feedback earlier in the session).

Training Options

We realise every client is different. You may have only half a dozen people to train, or perhaps you’re running a conference and want a guest speaker or a trainer to undertake a high impact, short breakout session.

Whatever you have in mind, we want to help you achieve your training goals. Let’s start a conversation and find out what’s happening at your place and what you want your people to be able to do differently as a result of training. If you’re on a tight budget, we get that as well. Rest assured, we are good listeners, and we are here to help you achieve your outcomes.