Needy, controlling and aggressive: How to handle three types of difficult people

What a hot topic. Everyone seems to be handling a difficult person — whether it is a staff member, team colleague, customer or their manager. Or they have a difficult person in their personal lives. Certain types of difficult people affect us more than others. For example: Angry, aggressive, abusive, bullying; Moody, tired, depressed, teary; Uncommitted, unmotivated, […]

Lessons from Centrelink: 7 steps to undoing anger caused by automation

Around the world there have been debacles caused by automation. A Michigan government agency wrongly accused 20,000 people of fraudulently seeking unemployment benefits. Imagine the angry clients! Centrelink started the year badly. An upsurge of complaints about its over-zealous, frequently inaccurate robo-debt collection methods might hopefully spell an end of misplaced bureaucratic faith in automation — and […]

Turn anger into good energy

You are churning inside – no-one realises how angry you are You’ve exploded in a team meeting and everyone’s ducking for cover You’ve just received a bad email and instantly responded back with rage Being angry or caught between two very angry people is debilitating. To be angry is human, but being constantly angry or repressing […]

When ‘helpful’ is anything but

We are all familiar with dealing with utilities and services that purport to ‘value’ calls but then keep customers in a queue for long periods. To cap it off, businesses then have the gall to ask what people think of their ‘service’.? Many complaints, if not handled well, will escalate to a new problem. Whether […]