CIPD launches tool to handle difficult people

High performance depends on effective relationships with colleagues and customers and the ability of individuals and teams to cope with difficult and stressful situations. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) have published a new toolkit Handling Difficult People and Difficult Situations providing trainers and HR professionals with a resource to train employees to cope with difficult people and difficult situations at work.

It contains useful training tools that can be tailored to a wide range of learning needs such as customer service, combating stress in the workplace, communication skills, influencing skills, assertiveness, leadership and management skills, and interpersonal skills.

Greg Whitear co author of the tool says: ìDifficult people may well have personal issues that make them difficult and some people may be difficult because of the way we interact with them. On the other hand people may seem difficult because their personality clashes with our own. But they are only difficult in our eyes and not necessarily in the eyes of others.

ìThis tool provides behavioural techniques that can be applied to a number of real life situations such as getting the boss to listen to you, difficult appraisals and being criticised by your colleagues. It will enable individuals to handle difficult people and situations effectively and productively.î

The toolkit uses the STARS philosophy. To ensure employees work together well everyone needs to be willing to:

Support other people who contribute towards shared goals
Tolerate the difference in work style of colleagues
Appreciate the value of different abilities and approaches to work
Results focus that helps people work together despite their differences
Shared responsibility and approach to resolving issues and differences