How to Deal with Difficult People, 6th Edition

02The seven classic difficult types

… or how to sound like an expert in the time it takes to drink a latte

The idea of ‘seven types of difficult people’ is from drawn from behavioural psychology and organizational theory. It’s important to identify the types. Why? Because knowing ‘who’ they are helps in understanding ‘what’ they are and that helps us to understand ‘why’ they are.

Once we know ‘why’ they are we can figure out ‘how’…

… how to deal with them.

1. The know-it-all

How to identify them?

It’s pretty simple, they identify themselves. They are generally condescending, likely to talk down to you. They are poor listeners. Indeed, they are often unwilling to listen at all. If that isn’t enough of a give-away, they’ll insist they are always ...