Hints and tips: Dealing with awkward people–Tip 5

A pair of psychologists called Alan A. Cavaiola, PhD, and Neil J. Lavender, PhD surveyed more than 1,100 employees and captured their thoughts in a book called “Toxic Co-workers: How to Deal with Dysfunctional People on the Job”.  This is the fifth in a series of short blogs with  tips based on their work.

5. Ditch Assumptions:  Rather than assume you are on the same page as the other person, check.  Don’t assume because something appears obvious to you that they know it too and have chosen to disregard it.  People’s priorities are determined by their circumstances, and what may be crucial to you may not be so important to your colleague.  This may change if you explain your situation and feelings (and listen to theirs!)  You may feel vexed that they are doing something else but you are missing a vital piece of data that explains why they need to do so.  A theme running through this set of tips is setting aside judgement and taking time to gather information and substituting negotiation to find a win:win instead either attack or defence.

The rest of this series:

1. Tip 1
2. Tip 2
3. Tip 3
4. Tip 4

This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2015 at 08:00 and is filed under Hints, Tips & Techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.