Challenging Environments

It’s important to create environments where people feel safe to belong and be themselves, without having to edit out bits of themselves to feel accepted. This means building appropriate, respectful relationships with people in our teams, not the caricatures or stereotypes we might have created for them.

It’s important to lead with values, compassion and a focus on people, but it’s doubly important when times are challenging. This is especially true when people are challenging. If you have tried to consciously, compassionately and curiously connect with the person and the challenging behaviour continues, you must not simply ignore it. Ignoring the inappropriate behaviour of an employee can affect team morale and become a psychosocial risk.

So, what can you do to minimise difficult behaviours in your work teams, and minimise their impact? These strategies often help:

Systemic Strategies:

• Clearly defined values and associated behaviours embedded in the recruitment and performance appraisal processes that are monitored ongoing.
• Clearly defined processes for responding to difficult behaviour (i.e., who to take it to, how and when).
• Decontamination processes. If the person with challenging behaviours leaves the organisation, deploy communication and strategies to minimise the damage they may do ‘on the way out’

Individual Strategies:

• Boundaries. Determine what behaviours you will not accept from others and put in place strategies to proactively deal with these.
• Depersonalise. When we are in conflict with someone, we can overly personalise disagreements, often resulting in personal attacks and insults.
• Manage your emotions. Use an even tone; relax your body, slow your breathing and your speech to minimise the risk of escalating the situation.
• Limitations and consequences. Communicate reasonable limits for acceptable behaviour; outline the consequences for not meeting these and then follow through with grace and respect.
• Others’ perceptions. Ensure you haven’t been hooked into difficult behaviour yourself.

For more information, and Implementation ideas, purchase The Ecosystem of Work.