Dealing with Difficult Behaviours in the Workplace

Managing Difficult Behaviours at Work

Course Outline Brisbane

Presented by Dr. Marcus Clarkson

Course Overview

I was at a coffee shop in Fortitude Valley last month with Rebecca, who is operations manager at a logistics Company. She looked exhausted. "Marcus," she said, "I dread going to work because of one person on my team. It's hurting everyone, but I don't know what to do." Sound familiar?

This full day workshop is for managers, team leaders or anyone who has to deal with difficult people in the workplace. Based on over fifteen years of consulting work with businesses (everything from small family run operations in regional Queensland to large companies in Brisbane's CBD), I have now seen every variety of difficult behaviour you could possibly imagine.

The best part about the course it is actionable. We're not even going to go down roads that explore lines of theoretical models that sound great on paper and then fail the moment they have to confront the messiness of real workplace drama. Instead, you'll discover proven methods that I, personally, used and taught to hundreds of Australian Business owners.

Learning Outcomes

By completing this course, you will be able to:

Recognise and mitigate the root cause of tough behaviours in the workplace

Utilise realistic de-escalation strategies with high conflict situations

Boundary Setting and Maintaining professional boundaries effectively (not just out of professional relationship)

Deal effectively with a variety of difficult personality types

Have appropriate documentation and escalation processes in place

Build their own resilience so they can remain healthy

What You Will Learn

Module 1: The 'Why' Underneath Challenging Behaviours

Let's kick off by looking at what is really behind challenging behaviours. I recall working at a mining company where everyone talked about "angry Ian," until we learnt he was dealing with a family emergency. You'll come to recognise temporary stress responses and genuine behavioural situations that you will need to address.

Module 2: The De escalation Toolkit

Here's where we get practical. You will use my highly effective CALM method that I learnt by shadowing an amazing store manager in Toowoomba dealing with a difficult customer. We'll work with real life scenarios, the colleague who explodes during meetings, the team member who sabotages vision and decisions, the person who makes every conversation a gripe session.

Module 3: Boundaries That Stick

This is challenging for many Australian managers because we like being "fair dinkum" and people pleasers. I can tell you how Jennifer, a small Business owner in Cairns, discovered how to be kind and firm. You'll learn the difference between when to go with the flow and when to be a pushover.

Unit 4: Different Personalities, Different Messages

There's not a one size fits all strategy for everyone. The passive aggressive colleague requires different treatment from the openly confrontational one. You will learn, through practical exercises, how to project your communication with some versatility and remain yourself.

Module 5: Documentation and When to Escalate

This isn't a strategy to "get someone in trouble" by creating a paper trail, it's about protecting everyone all around. You'll be shown what to record, how to record it and when to bring HR or senior management into the mix. We'll also address how to navigate the office politics that tend to accompany these situations.

Unit 6: Looking After You

You are the most important factor in this equation. Tapping into my personal bout of burnout in the early days of consulting, we will dive into actionable self care techniques. You can't fill from an empty cup, and managing challenging behaviours takes a lot of emotional energy.

Course Methodology

This is an interactive, conversational workshop with:

True industrial examples from the Australian workplace

Role playing exercises with immediate feedback

Discussion in small groups and peer learning

There are practical tools that you can begin using right now

Take home resources for ongoing reference

Who Should Attend

Team leaders and supervisors

HR professionals

Project managers

Anybody that faces difficult work relationships regularly

Entrepreneurs having to deal with tough teams to manage

Concluding Remarks

By day's end, you will not only have learnt a lot, but you will have gained confidence. That makes sense because when you see the name of someone on your calendar who can be prickly, you probably feel a twinge of dread and that is going to change to quiet confidence that you can handle whatever comes your way.

People are not meant to be changed we are not here to do that. Our role is to maintain professional relationships, look after our teams and look after ourselves, while having to deal with the range of human behaviour in the workplace.

You will leave with a truly practical approach, exercises based on real experience and preliminary know how to professionally and effectively face difficult behaviours. And, best of all, you'll stop taking these hits personally and start looking at them as surface skimmable obstacles that every great leader figures out how to dance around.

Time: 1 day (7 hours including breaks)

Maximum participants: 16

Location: Brisbane CBD training facility