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All of us have at least once had to work with people we can't stand. Perhaps it was a person who laughs out loud at the most inopportune moment. Or one who constantly steals other people's ideas and undeservedly receives praise from his superiors.
Sometimes completely different characters interfere with working together: someone is active and fast, and someone is slow and clumsy. Sometimes the reason for dislike cannot be explained when, for example, colleagues from different departments are working on a common project and simply do not understand each other. Of course, all this affects not only the process, but also the result.
Most often, four complex character traits interfere with establishing normal working relationships: selfishness, conflict, rudeness and irresponsibility. Fortunately, you can find your own approach to each of those who possess these qualities.Egoists usually cannot be described as friendly and pleasant people, on the contrary, they think exclusively about themselves. In the worst cases, this is combined with toxic behavior and even narcissism.
Psychology professor Art Markman notes that the behavior of narcissists is especially detrimental to the working atmosphere, but it is important to see the difference between a self-confident and narcissistic person. Narcissists differ in that they do not know how to appreciate other people's good ideas and tend to exaggerate their own importance.
If you are the boss, try to deal with this behavior immediately and directly. When you see an employee going head over heels, let him know that this behavior is unacceptable.
If the egoist is your colleague, use the same approach. It is better to immediately stop such an attitude and unequivocally make it clear that you will not tolerate this in your address.
Interpersonal drama should never become part of the workflow. But this is difficult to explain to those who are dissatisfied with every little thing and loves to arrange conflicts from scratch.
According to Associate Professor of Management Stefan Dilhert, conflicts can be good. Or at least those that do not harm the corporate culture. It's all about intentions here. Constructive disagreements move forward, and conflicts for the sake of conflicts or energy vampirism only take away strength. Alas, lovers of quarrels and squabbles choose just the second option.
If you are the boss, try to give such subordinates independent tasks, because working in tandem can lead to new conflicts. It is also important to create and maintain an atmosphere of mutual assistance and mutual assistance in the team.
If you have to deal with such a colleague, do not accept his terms of the game and do not allow yourself to be involved in a conflict. To any comments that are not related to work, answer in monosyllables and translate the topic back into the working channel. Over time, such a person will realize that he will not get the right reaction from you, and will switch to another "victim".
This is not necessarily the person who constantly makes unpleasant remarks. In a professional team, it is rather someone who does not like to work in a team, constantly criticizes everyone and everything and very rarely compromises.
Straightforwardness can help in dealing with such people. They rarely understand what it means to "smooth out corners" at all, and do not appreciate soft blurry formulations. For example, instead of saying "The edits on the project are generally not bad, but a few more points need to be changed," it's better to get right to the point: "The following points need to be corrected in the project...".
It is worth teaming up with other colleagues. When the brute starts criticizing someone's work or idea again, use the situation as a brainstorming session and offer new options together in turn. This will switch his attention.
Some of those who are characterized by rudeness sometimes try to dominate the team — to impose their opinion or demand that everyone do exactly as they want. If your colleague is just like that, psychotherapist Malody Wilding advises using his focus on results.
Most often, rude people are focused on tasks, so you can try to explain to them how their behavior prevents the department or the company from achieving more. This is especially useful for bosses. Remind such employees that they are part of the team, or tell them directly that aggressive and passive—aggressive reactions at work are unacceptable.Compliance with deadlines and responsible attitude to assignments are not a priority for such employees. Most often they are spoken of as unreliable and unable to follow plans. These are the very people who prefer to do things their own way, instead of adhering to standards. This is not always a bad thing, but when a serious deadline is on the nose, this behavior is pretty annoying.
To work productively with such a colleague, you need to raise the stakes. He will hardly consider it important to respond to your request on time, but he will probably change his mind quickly when he finds out that the task is being monitored by the boss himself.
If this does not bring the desired result, remind the optional employee about the corporate culture, which most likely does not encourage laziness and delaying things for later. Perhaps this will force him to reconsider his attitude to work.
