Difficult people can be a thorn in the side of many a leader. The author shows a process to help turn difficult people from liabilities into assets.
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For decades, every summer, welcoming his scholarship players, Alabama coaching legend, Paul "Bear" Bryant, asked: "Have you called your folks to thank them? No one ever got to this level of excellence in football without the help of others."
Bryant didn't just appreciate the importance of other people in the development of a young athlete; he wanted the athletes to appreciate it too. Such appreciation is also a lesson in leadership. Nobody becomes a successful leader unless others want you to be; you need help; and part of your growth as a leader is to recognize and show appreciation for that help.
But you'll give your leadership and ultimately your career a real boost by extending your appreciation not just to the people you like and who are on your side but also to the people you may dislike: the difficult people in your life, those people who for right or wrong reasons cause you grief.
One of the most effective ways of dealing with them is to appreciate them. I mean truly appreciate them. When you do, you may find that you are dealing with them in surprisingly productive ways.
The word "appreciation" comes from a Latin root meaning "to apprehend the value." In other words, your appreciation of difficult people must be centered on your genuine understanding of the value they offer you and your organization.
You are not just understanding their point of view. You are actually appreciating it; and you are using that appreciation as a tool to get more results, more results than if the difficult people had not entered your life. Otherwise, your appreciation, at least as far as leadership is concerned, is a waste of time.
Here's a four step process to make appreciation a results-generator.
(1) Team up. To get appreciation rolling, know that you must be a team, you and the difficult person, in the development of it. Mind you, you're not trying to get the difficult person to appreciate you. You have little control over the other's appreciation. You do, however, have control over yours. So, focus on cultivating yours. That cultivation happens only in a relationship -- a team relationship with the other person, not necessarily a personal relationship. In a team-relationship, you don't have to like the other person. You simply have to work with them -- actively and wholeheartedly, irrespective of personal feelings. And the goal of your team is to forge out of the difficulties you're having with one another a leadership process that achieves results.
(2) Identify. When you're dealing with a difficult person, you're often entangled in strong emotions. The first thing to do is, with the person's help in a face-to-face meeting, get at the precise causes of the difficulties. Try to remove yourself from your emotional entanglements. "Break down" what's happening the way football coaches break down the plays of opposing teams studying game films. This breaking down is a collaborative process, and it should go like this: First, have the person describe the exact moments when you were having trouble with each other. It's important to keep focused simply on the physical facts of those moments. What were the specific actions and words that triggered the emotions? When the person gives h/her side of the story then and only then can you give yours. Only when both of you are clear as to those moments and agree on what took place can you start to talk with each other about your feelings connected to those moments of physical action.
For instance, that person may contend you are not listening to what h/she says to you. Have the person describe the exact moment when you were not listening. Where were you? What was being said? Precisely, what gave that person that impression?
