Handling Difficult People and Managing Conflict

Handling Difficult People and Managing Conflict

Aim

Managing conflict at work is becoming an increasing challenge for employers.  The number of individual employment disputes that result in employment tribunal applications continues to increase, meaning that an ability to manage conflict and ‘difficult people’, whether in the workplace or not, has become an essential skill.

The overall aim of this course is to develop skills that will enable conflict problems to be turned into opportunities, and for any potentially confrontational situations to be defused and resolved.

Course Content

• What is conflict and what are the potential sources, both overt and covert?

• What makes everyone different and unique?

• The Four Personality types, their characteristics and how these may result in creating ‘difficult people’

• The 3 elements of communication and the importance of flexibility in communication style

• Rapid rapport building – face to face, over the telephone and in writing

• The VHF channels of communication and how to use them to speak someone else’s language

• Listening skills – what’s being said, how is it being said and what’s really being said

• The 3 levels of listening and why Level 1 should never be used in a conversation

• Questioning skills – how to defuse a challenging situation by asking the right questions

• The 9-stage model of conflict escalation

• What is assertiveness and what are the benefits of being assertive?

• The Assertive Sentence – the ultimate tool for dealing with confrontational situations

• Reducing stress by activating personal ‘State Control’.  Avoid being sucked into someone else’s negativity and attitude, and instead, choose and experience exactly how you want to feel

• Action planning – pulling it all together by determining how to resolve any real-life examples of conflict and deciding what to do differently in the future as a result of attending the course.