151 Quick Ideas to Deal With Difficult People

14Train Your Managers in the Art of Difficult Conversations

Even if you’re a hands-on owner, your managers will have to confront difficult employees at some point. Make sure the supervisors have the training to steer through stressful conversations. Those talks are too important to be left to chance.

Assignment

Check with your managers on occasion to ask how they handled a difficult situation with a subordinate.

A manager trained in conflict resolution won’t blow up and say something an employee can construe as discrimination or sexual harassment.

“A lot of it is your choice of words, your tone of voice, and making sure you address the performance as opposed to making the employee himself feel threatened,” said Diane Pfadenhauer, the owner ...