Successfully Managing Conflict and Difficult People
“There are three ways of dealing with differences and conflict: domination, compromise, and integration. By domination only one side gets what it wants; by compromise neither side gets what it wants; by integration we find a way by which both sides may get what they wish.”
How you resolve with conflict and work with unreasonable or difficult people is one of the most stressful situations any manager or employee can find him or herself in. Whether the conflict occurs among other team members, or with your customers – unreasonable or difficult behaviour and interpersonal conflict can be debilitating and draining.
The good news is that you don’t need to go through your working life “holding your breath” around these people. This half-day training course will show you how to recognise the basic causes of difficult behaviour and provide you a range of practical tools and strategies to both manage and resolve these “stressful” workplace encounters.
By being part of this training, you’ll gain greater awareness of your own emotional triggers and learn how to control them – so you won’t have to ignore, or feel “sick” about dealing with difficult people or conflict again.
- The difference between a disagreement and conflict.
- What is your personal conflict management style?
- How your own attitudes and actions impact others.
- Develop practical coping strategies for managing uncomfortable situations.
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 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).