151 Quick Ideas to Deal With Difficult People

36Set an Example

It’s hard to remain calm when dealing with an employee who makes the same mistakes over and over. Despite his promise to improve, the poor works continues. Out of sheer exasperation you want to resort to threats or turn up the volume to try to get through. If you take that route, however, you’ll unwittingly set a negative tone for dealing with personnel problems. And your subordinates may follow your lead.

As a company leader you wield an awesome power that affects your employees’ interpersonal skills. The example your set filters down through the ranks, contend the authors of Conquer Your Critical Inner Voice.

“In general, workers adopt the same attitudes and behaviors in their interactions with coworkers and customers that ...