Managing Difficult Personality Types
Mastering Difficult Personality Types: Leadership Skills for Managing Challenging Employees
Course Objectives:
- Identify and understand common difficult personality types.
- Develop practical strategies for managing each type effectively.
- Enhance communication skills to create a positive, productive work environment.
Target Audience:
- Managers, supervisors, and team leads dealing with challenging employees.
Benefits to be Gained:
- Improved conflict resolution skills.
- Enhanced team productivity and morale.
- Practical tools for navigating difficult interpersonal dynamics.
Duration: 6 hours (1 day with breaks)
Agenda with Exercises:
- Introduction to Difficult Personality Types (9:00 – 10:00)
- Overview of the ten challenging types: Micromanager, Know-it-All, Passive-Aggressive, etc.
- Exercise: Group Discussion
- Approach: Participants share experiences with difficult personalities in small groups.
- Time Needed: 20 minutes
- Expected Outcome: Increased awareness of common behaviors and their impact.
- Strategies for Managing Each Personality Type (10:15 – 11:45)
- Explore specific strategies for each type, including fostering autonomy for micromanagers, giving constructive feedback to know-it-alls, and navigating passive-aggressive behavior.
- Exercise: Case Study Analysis
- Approach: Review and discuss real-life scenarios involving challenging personality types.
- Time Needed: 30 minutes
- Expected Outcome: Practical understanding of how to apply strategies.
- Break (11:45 – 12:00)
- Building Emotional Intelligence (12:00 – 13:00)
- Understanding emotional triggers and managing responses.
- Exercise: Emotional Intelligence Self-Assessment
- Approach: Participants complete an assessment to evaluate their emotional intelligence.
- Time Needed: 20 minutes
- Expected Outcome: Awareness of emotional strengths and areas for growth.
- Lunch Break (13:00 – 14:00)
- Communication Techniques for Conflict Resolution (14:00 – 15:00)
- Techniques for maintaining open dialogue, de-escalating situations, and fostering a positive atmosphere.
- Exercise: Role Play
- Approach: Participants role-play managing a challenging team member using learned techniques.
- Time Needed: 30 minutes
- Expected Outcome: Enhanced communication skills in handling difficult personalities.
- Developing a Personal Action Plan (15:15 – 16:00)
- Creating individual action plans for dealing with specific challenging employees.
- Exercise: Action Planning Worksheet
- Approach: Participants outline specific steps they will take to improve management of difficult personalities.
- Time Needed: 30 minutes
- Expected Outcome: A clear, actionable plan tailored to individual workplace challenges.
- Wrap-Up and Q&A (16:00 – 17:00)
- Recap key takeaways and open floor for questions.
This training curriculum helps managers build the confidence and skills necessary to manage difficult personalities effectively, resulting in a more harmonious and productive work environment. Let me know if you’d like further elaboration or customization!
Features
- Dealing with unusual behavior
- Respecting your own values
- Dealing with strong emotions (your own and those of others)
- Avoiding emotional outbursts
Target audiences
- Supervisors, Managers, Senior-Managers, Project Managers, ....
Requirements
- Some experience with managing people
Instructor
Coaching & Leadership Development is my passion and I combine this with Change Management and Leading Transformations in profit and non-profit organizations. Having been an operations manager myself, I do understand implications on the floor in larger scale transformations. I have 35+ years of experience, worked in global corporates and had various leadership positions, incl. C-Suite level. I have practiced what I preach, and also add today's insights from the latest research. I am a member of HBR Advisory Council.
This course was an eye-opener for me. I always struggled big time with some of these difficult types in my team and they often made me sweaty nervous. Through applying what I learned with the help of some coaching sessions of the trainer (Jan) I really managed to become almost comfortable with all of my team members and am able to take one approach without having to think about some individuals' derailing capabilities. I now understand them better, the driving forces behind their behaviors and they now function as fully rewarded team members in my team. They still behave different, but I know what to do in most situations. A course every manager should take to have no more sleepless nights.
