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
Jan Salomons is an international executive leader turned leadership specialist and executive coach with over 35 years of experience across IT, transport, and semiconductors. His senior roles in HR, L&D, operations, transformation, and portfolio management—combined with work in 50+ countries—give him a rare, practical understanding of how leadership behavior drives organizational success in high-pressure environments. Jan founded Salomons.Coach to help executives and teams create visible behavioral change and measurable results. In 2024, he joined the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council. Today he partners with CEOs and executive teams who want leadership behavior to become the engine of performance and transformation.
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.
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.