Introduction To
Difficult People

Introduction Written By: Nicholas Kramer

People are not difficult, they are just different. As a leader you must learn to adjust to different situations and types of people. The first step to successful adjustment is your attitude. Without a good attitude you become just as difficult as the people with whom you are trying to work. Next is to understand why people seem difficult. Three major things make people difficult. They are communication, behavior, and relationships.

People need to understand each other to work together. As the leader it is you job to make sure that everyone understands what needs to be done. This requires communication. You must make sure that others know what is to be done and who is supposed to do it. Remember, that communication involves two parties, the sender and the receiver. The average person can send about 120 words per minute; whereas, the average receiver can receive 800 words per minute. This difference can cause problems. The receiver has 680 words per minute that are not being filled by your communication. It is being filled with external and internal noise. That noise can distort or overlap you message. To ensure that others understand you message you must remember that, communication is complex. Visual stimuli (pictures, body language, etc.) make up 55% of what people will receive. Another 38% is how you say what you are saying, rather than what you are actually saying. The meanings of your words are only 7% of what others will receive from you.

Once you have become proficient at communication you can move on to actually dealing with people. To accomplish this you first need to understand their behavior. All people are motivated in some way or another. You need to provide and environment so that people can become motivated. They will do things for their own reasons not yours. You need to provide good reasons to get people to become motivated. When this has been accomplished you can begin a task. Remember that everyone has strengths and weaknesses. You need to be aware of these. Use each persons strengths to balance others' weaknesses. For more information about behavior styles and strength and weaknesses see slides 24 through 43.

When dealing with people you will encounter many different types of people. You need to treat each situation with care and attention to what is going on (see slides 44 through 64). Try to understand what they need and what their particular problem is. Actively listen to their complaints and try to help them work out their problems. Remember, everyone is different and you will need to adjust to each person differently.

If you have any questions go through the full slide show. You may need to read through it several times. I also suggest taking down a few notes. If you still have questions contact the author, Sam Herb. He should be able to answer any of you questions dealing with this presentation.

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This page was last modified on August 8, 2002.