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Leading Difficult People
Prof. Rick Reis
Folks:

The posting below describes seven rules for dealing with difficult faculty members. It is by Lee G. Bolman and Joan V. Gallos and is from The Department Chair: A Resource for Academic Administrators, Spring, 2016, Vol. 26, No. 4. For further information on how to subscribe, as well as pricing and discount information, please contact, Sandy Quade, Account Manager, John Wiley & Sons, Phone: (203) 643-8066 (squadepe@wiley.com), or see: http://www.departmentchairs.org/journal.aspx.

Regards,



Rick Reis

reis@stanford.edu

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Leading Difficult People

We don't know that colleges and universities have more idiosyncratic and difficult people than other organizations, though anecdotal evidence to that effect is buttressed by popular stereotypes in film and fiction of mad scientists, absent-minded professors, campus despots, and manipulative administrators. Faculty, in particular, are expected to be idiosyncratic. It’s part of their charm and may fuel their productivity (Andreasen 2006; Wallace and Gruber 1989). Even if academe has no more than its fair share of challenging personalities, its employees have more autonomy and room to bring their full personal package to the workplace than do workers elsewhere. As a result, there are fewer guard rails to keep individuals from going off the road or crashing head-on into someone else. Most academic administrators have to deal with at least a few unusually difficult or prickly people who cause a disproportionate share of their headaches. How ready are you?

Our focus here is not on everyday cranks, critics, and gadflies. They may be irritating but are often valuable and productive citizens. Wise academic administrators honor and protect these industrious and candid curmudgeons. Think of them as a special kind of ally—and make them your best friends, not enemies. They offer early warning signs of trouble because they voice what others are thinking and feeling but not saying. Recognizing this can save a lot of energy and aggravation—and yield valuable information to inform your leadership choices. We will not address poor performers or folks who routinely promise more than they deliver. We recommend clear performance goals, consistent feedback, coaching, and assessment processes that hold people accountable for meeting stated expectations. Our major concern here is preparing you to handle individuals who spread toxicity and misery wherever they go while draining away everyone’s time and energy from getting work done. You need a workable strategy for handling these individuals before they erode collective morale—and your sanity.

We present a set of seven rules to help you stay grounded in the face of the range of cases you may encounter. Handling difficult people takes a combination of strategy, confidence, and calm - and some good training in counseling basics.

The Seven Rules for Dealing with Difficult People

Academic leaders handle difficult people best when they:

1. Assess the full situation

2. Look in the mirror


3. Befriend their challenge

4. Unhook

5. Set expectations


6. Get help


7. Divorce, if necessary

Rule 1: Assess the Full Situation

A first step in dealing with difficult people is to assess the situation so that you know what you have before you. It helps to differentiate between a genuinely difficult person and a work situation that is bringing out the worst in someone. This is important because it’s often easier to change the circumstances than the individual. Branding another person as difficult is tempting as a way to localize blame, but jumping to conclusions can block you from identifying situational adjustments to curtail the bothersome behavior.

A key test of a difficult person is whether the problematic behavior is chronic and consistent or situational. Does the individual’s behavior vary with different people or circumstances? Does the individual ever learn or adapt in response to feedback or open discussion? Was there a particular incident that triggered the behavior pattern? Indications that the behavior is situational or influenceable offer hope that a solution to the troublesome behavior can be found with learning for all involved (Bramson 1981).

Rule 2: Look in the Mirror

When others seem unreasonable or uncooperative, it’s important to remember that they may see you as the problem—and sometimes they could be right. There may be feedback on your leadership or your choices that you are not hearing. You may be over-responding to behavior that you perceive as troublesome. Or you may be reading unresolved issues from painful circumstances in your past into the current relationship, fearful that an unpleasant or challenging situation will repeat itself. It is human nature to respond defensively when feeling threatened or under pressure—and this is often the case in dealing with people we find difficult. Ask yourself or someone you trust if there’s anything you’re doing that might be causing or maintaining the difficulty. Even if there isn’t, you’ll have taken time for a useful check on your own leadership. The opportunity to take a step back and look at the big picture is always helpful....

This article is adapted from Chapter 10 of the authors’ book Reframing Academic Leadership(Jossey-Bass 2011).

Lee G. Bolman holds the Marion Bloch/Missouri Chair in Leadership at the Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. Email: bolmanl@umkc.edu

Joan V. Gallos is vice president for academic affairs and professor of leadership at Wheelock College. Email: jgallos@ wheelock.edu

References

Andreasen, Nancy C. 2006. The Creative Brain: The Science of Genius. New York: Penguin.

Argyris, Chris. 1968. “Conditions for Competence Acquisition and Therapy.” Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 4 (2): 147–177.

Bramson, Robert M. 1981. Coping with Difficult People. New York: Dell.

Carter, Jay. 1989. Nasty People: How to Stop Being Hurt by Them without Becoming One of Them. Lincolnwood, IL: Contemporary Books.

Wallace, Doris B., and Howard E. Gruber. 1989. Creative People at Work. New York: Oxford University Press.

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