How to get what you want from difficult people

Originally published on JOTFORM.COM

According to research by Dr. Brinkman and Kirschner in Dealing with People You Can’t Stand, there are challenging personality types that make our lives harder:

• The Tank: Confrontational and angry.
• The Sniper: Makes you look foolish.
• The Grenade: Explodes into fury out of nowhere.
• The Know-It-All: Authoritative and things must be their way.
• The Whiner: Points out everything wrong in vague terms.

You might now be thinking of a person to put one of these labels on.

They could be a friend, co-worker, customer, or family member (circa that tense Thanksgiving of 2016).

No matter what type of difficult personality they have, in the extreme you’ll experience what Robert I. Sutton, Professor of Management Science at the Stanford Engineering School, described in his graphically titled book:

“Encounters with rude, insulting, and demeaning people undermine others’ performance — including their decision-making skills, productivity, and creativity.”

Ouch.