Dealing with Difficult People
The key focus of our dealing with difficult people programmes is on teaching people skills that enable them to stay calm, professional and polite when others are being obnoxious towards them. We have run these programmes for Police, Immigration officers, ACC personnel, bus drivers and a wide range of Council Staff such as parking enforcement personnel, dog rangers, health and building inspectors, pool staff and noise abatement officers.
We have also conducted programmes for staff who receive abuse over the telephone, as opposed to, a face to face situation. These have included situations where organisations have established a specific ‘hotline’ to deal with issues of concern, and for hospital staff who phone people to inform them that their surgery has been postponed.
While the training is client specific it is common to have segments on:
- What to say and how to say it well
- How to remain calm and professional during the interaction
- Mental skills for dealing with criticism
- Verbal skills for dealing with criticism
- Constructive ways to deal with people who swear at you
- How to avoid “matching” the persons insults
- How to use your body language to influence others
- Managing the stress generated by regularly dealing with difficult people
