Recently, I was conducting a full-day workshop for administrative professionals at a large organization. I was purposely brought in to help these assistants manage change, build strategic partnerships with their managers, learn how to be more proactive, and build peer synergy. This was a mandatory training event and sometimes when employees are told they must attend training, they get a little defensive. I get it but on the other hand, the employee should be happy their employer cares enough to invest in professional development.

Well, we have one individual who started off the day being negative about the training and it took a lot of energy on my part to deal with her attitude so it did not affect the rest of the class and our overall objectives for learning. Eventually, she got into the material but I could tell she still had some hidden resistance. At that point, I just let her be as she wanted. She was the one losing out; not me.

I’m sure you run into people in your workplace who, for whatever reason, have bad attitudes. Here are some observations that might help you when you deal with these individuals. [Read more…]