Table Of Content“Just as some people bring out your best,
and other people bring out your worst, you
can bring out the best in other people at
their worst. It’s a matter of understanding
where they are coming from and what is
likely to work with them.”
This page intentionally left blank.
“Communication is like a phone number. If
you leave one number out, (only ten percent
of the number), the call will not go through.
If you dial the area code at the end as an
after-thought, the call does not get through.
You need all the digits to get through, and
you need them in the right order.”
This page intentionally left blank.
Dealing with
Difficult People
24 Lessons for Bringing Out the
Best in Everyone
RICK BRINKMAN
RICK KIRSCHNER
MCGRAW-HILL
New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon
London Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi
San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto
Copyright ©2003 by Rick Brinkman and Rick Kirshner. All rights reserved. Manufactured
in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act
of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any
means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the
publisher.
0-07-142566-7
The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: 0-07-141641-2
All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark
symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fash-
ion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of
the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with
initial caps.
McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and
sales promotions, or for use in corporate training programs. For more information, please
contact George Hoare, Special Sales, at [email protected] or (212) 904-
4069.
TERMSOFUSE
This is a copyrighted work and The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (“McGraw-Hill”) and
its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work. Use of this work is subject to these terms.
Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one
copy of the work, you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, reproduce, mod-
ify, create derivative works based upon, transmit, distribute, disseminate, sell, publish or
sublicense the work or any part of it without McGraw-Hill’s prior consent. You may use
the work for your own noncommercial and personal use; any other use of the work is strict-
ly prohibited. Your right to use the work may be terminated if you fail to comply with these
terms.
THE WORK IS PROVIDED “AS IS”. McGRAW-HILLAND ITS LICENSORS MAKE
NO GUARANTEES OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACYOR
COMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WORK,
INCLUDING ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE
WORK VIA HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY
WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITYOR FITNESS FOR APARTICU-
LAR PURPOSE. McGraw-Hill and its licensors do not warrant or guarantee that the func-
tions contained in the work will meet your requirements or that its operation will be unin-
terrupted or error free. Neither McGraw-Hill nor its licensors shall be liable to you or any-
one else for any inaccuracy, error or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any
damages resulting therefrom. McGraw-Hill has no responsibility for the content of any
information accessed through the work. Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill
and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or
similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them
has been advised of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply
to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or
otherwise.
DOI: 10.1036/0071425667
Want to learn more?
We hope you enjoy this McGraw-Hill eBook! If you’d like
more information about this book, its author, or related
books and websites, please click here.
For more information about this title, click here.
Contents
Dealing with difficult people viii
Recognize the 10 most unwanted behaviors 1
Choose your approach 3
Understand the four intents 5
Understand the first intent: get it done 7
Understand the second intent: get it right 9
Understand the third intent:
get along 11
Understand the fourth intent:
get appreciated 13
Recognize the results of threatened intents 15
Reduce differences 17
Listen to understand 19
Reach a deeper understanding 21
Speak to be understood 23
Project and expect the best 25
Bring out the best in the Tank 27
Bring out the best in the Sniper 29
Bring out the best in the Know-It-All 31
Bring out the best in the
Think-They-Know-It-All 33
Bring out the best in the Grenade 35
Bring out the best in the Yes Person 37
Bring out the best in the Maybe Person 39
Bring out the best in the Nothing Person 41
Bring out the best in the No Person 43
Bring out the best in the Whiner 45
Take the first three action steps 47
vii
Copyright 2003 by Rick Brinkman and Rick Kirshner. Click here for Terms of Use.
(cid:1)
Dealing with difficult
people
D
ifficult people: they’re those people you can’t stand and who
don’t do what you want them to do or do what you don’t want them
to do—and you don’t know what to do about them!
Good news: you don’t have to be their victim anymore. And while
you can’t change difficult people, you can communicate with them
in such a way that they change themselves.
In this book, we define the four key areas you’ll have to focus on
to solve your people problems.
First, we’ll describe the “10 most unwanted” types of behavior
and examine the forces that compel people to be difficult in such a
variety of ways. Then we’ll help you build a “lens” for understanding
why people act the way they do. Your ability to recognize the four key
behavioral intentions is the first step toward success in influencing
people to change their behavior toward the positive.
Then, we’ll focus on surviving through skillful communication.
This involves, among other things, learning the critical skills of blend-
ingand redirecting. We’ll show you techniques that will help you listen
to understand—and thereby to reach a deeper understanding. We’ll
suggest ways that you can speak to be understood. With effective lis-
tening skills and speaking skills in your repertoire, you’ll have the
building blocks for specific strategies for the toughest behaviors. And
as you make these positive communication skills a habit, you will be
able to prevent many of the difficult behaviors from ever occurring.
After that, we discuss each of the 10 most unwanted behaviors
and tell you how to get the best result with each of them. We close by
viii
Copyright 2003 by Rick Brinkman and Rick Kirshner. Click here for Terms of Use.
