Online Class: How to Deal with Difficult Personalities

In our online course Dealing with Difficult People, students will learn to identify various types of difficult personalities and address conflict before it begins to chip away at their well-being and job satisfaction.

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$120.00 (with CEU Certificate)
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  • 11
    Lessons
  • 13
    Exams &
    Assignments
  • 7,060
    Students
    have taken this course
  • 7
    Hours
    average time
  • 0.7
    CEUs
 
 
 

Course Description

Mastering Workplace Dynamics: Navigating Complex Personalities with Poise

The modern workplace can be a melting pot of personalities, some harmonious and others challenging. Encountering difficult or toxic individuals is an unfortunate reality for many professionals. Such interactions can take a toll, affecting mental well-being, job performance, and overall satisfaction. When the challenging individual occupies the office next door or, even more dauntingly, is in a position of authority over you, the pressure intensifies. However, with the right knowledge and tools, one can navigate these treacherous waters with confidence and skill.

Understanding, confronting, and effectively managing difficult personalities is not just about conflict resolution—it’s about preserving your peace, ensuring your rights, and maintaining a productive work environment. Our comprehensive course offers guidance on mastering these very aspects, equipping you to handle complex workplace dynamics.

Course Highlights:

  • Recognizing Difficult Personalities: Understand and categorize various challenging behaviors you might encounter, from the overtly aggressive to the subtly undermining.

  • Your Rights in the Workplace: A foundational overview of your rights as an employee. This segment will empower you to distinguish between acceptable workplace behavior and what crosses the line.

  • Stress Management: Techniques to handle on-the-job pressures and maintain a balanced mental state, ensuring that external negativity doesn't erode your inner peace.

  • Establishing Boundaries: Learn to assertively define your personal and professional boundaries, ensuring mutual respect between you and your colleagues.

  • Effective Collaboration: Delve into methods that promote harmonious team dynamics, even when working with challenging personalities.

  • Conflict Resolution: Acquire actionable strategies to resolve disputes and misunderstandings before they escalate, preserving workplace morale.

  • Decoding Body Language: Enhance your ability to read non-verbal cues, a skill invaluable in gauging unspoken intentions and sentiments.

  • Handling Aggression: Strategies and tools to defuse aggressive behavior and ensure your safety and dignity.

  • Dealing with Critics and Power Dynamics: Equip yourself with techniques to manage those who constantly criticize or display overt power-seeking tendencies.

  • Managing the Unproductive: Addressing the “slackers” and those who drain team energy, ensuring consistent productivity.

  • Avoiding Office Gossip: Navigate away from unhealthy workplace gossip and its repercussions, promoting a culture of positivity.

  • Gender Dynamics in the Workplace: Understanding the nuances of gender interactions and ensuring an environment of equality and respect.

  • Confronting Prejudice: Tactics and approaches to handle instances of prejudice, ensuring that biases, in any form, are addressed and eradicated.

  • Standing up to Authoritative Figures: Courageously and respectfully asserting yourself when confronted with a bullying boss or superior.

Course Impact:

Engaging with this course will not just impart knowledge, but it will empower you. You'll be better positioned to foster healthy interactions, confront issues with tact and confidence, and ensure that your work environment remains positive and productive. You don’t have to be a silent sufferer of negative workplace dynamics. Equip yourself with the skills to champion not just for your rights, but also for a healthier, happier workplace for all.

In today’s ever-evolving workplace, the ability to handle complex personalities and situations is not just a skill, but a necessity. Register today and invest in not just your professional growth, but also your peace of mind. Let this course be your comprehensive guide to mastering the intricate dance of workplace dynamics.

  • Completely Online
  • Self-Paced
  • Printable Lessons
  • Full HD Video  
  • 6 Months to Complete
  • 24/7 Availability
  • Start Anytime
  • PC & Mac Compatible
  • Android & iOS Friendly
  • Accredited CEUs
Universal Class is an IACET Accredited Provider
 
 

Course Lessons

Average Lesson Rating:
4.32 / 5 Stars (Average Rating)
"Extraordinarily Helpful"
(5,706 votes)

Lesson 1 : Course Introduction

10 Points
Dealing with a difficult or toxic personality can be damaging both emotionally and physically, particularly if the person is your boss or sitting in the cubicle right next to you.
  • Lesson 1 Video
  • Lesson discussions: Difficult People; Reasons for Taking this Course
  • Complete Assignment: An Introduction
  • Assessment: Lesson 1: Course Introduction

Lesson 2 : Basic Conflict Resolution

10 Points
This lesson may be a review of what you learned in grade school, but some grown-ups don't play by the rules. In the midst of dealing with a difficult person, it's easy to forget the fundamentals of conflict resolution. Additional lesson topics: Basic Conflict Resolution Strategies
  • Lesson 2 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 2: Basic Conflict Resolution

Lesson 3: Understanding Body Language

11 Points
The messages conveyed by their body language are known as subtext, a term that is often used in the acting world to describe the underlying meaning of what is being said. Additional lesson topics: Using Body Language
  • Lesson 3 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 3: Understanding Body Language

Lesson 4: Bullies

12 Points
Garnering a reputation for being a jerk breeds the contempt and mistrust of others, and has been shown to diminish chances for pay raises and promotions.
  • Lesson 4 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 4: Bullies

Lesson 5: Power Struggles: Handling Critics, Rivals, and Power Freaks

11 Points
This lesson identifies a few categories of difficult people who all have one thing in common. They are in pursuit of, you guessed it, power.
  • Lesson 5 Video
  • Lesson discussions: Rivalry
  • Assessment: Lesson 5: Power Struggles: Handling Critics, Rivals and Power Freaks With Panache

Lesson 6: Slackers and Energy Vampires

12 Points
Not only has slacking been labeled by many news stories as a workplace epidemic, there are numerous articles that attempt to illustrate the very little risk involved in turning in a below average performance.
  • Lesson 6 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 6: Slackers and Energy Vampires

Lesson 7: Office Gossip

12 Points
Office gossip can be immensely damaging to productivity and morale, and obviously, no one likes to be gossiped about.
  • Lesson 7 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 7: Gossip Girls (and Guys)

Lesson 8: Problematic Personalities

12 Points
Some people are just hard to deal with. In this lesson we'll discuss several types of troublesome behavior and ways to address them without ruining your day.
  • Lesson 8 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 8: Problematic Personalities

Lesson 9: When Men and Women Collide: Gender Differences in the Workplace

9 Points
In this lesson, we'll discuss some common differences in the communication styles of men and women, and ways to address conflict that may arise from these differences.
  • Lesson 9 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 9: When Men and Women Collide: Gender Differences In The Workplace

Lesson 10: When The Bully Is Your Boss

10 Points
Many bosses fall into the category of power freaks. Whether the impulse to micro-manage and control is manifested in aggressive or passive-aggressive ways, a power freak boss can often leave you feeling stressed and walking on eggshells.
  • Lesson 10 Video
  • Assessment: Lesson 10: When The Bully Is Your Boss

Lesson 11: Successful Collaboration

64 Points
This lesson will explore some of the keys to effective collaboration. Developing solutions as a team can sometimes be as difficult for adults as sharing a toy box is for a group of kids.
  • Lesson 11 Video
  • Lesson discussions: Collaboration; Program Evaluation Follow-up Survey (End of Course); Course Comments
  • Assessment: Lesson 11: Successful Collaboration
  • Assessment: The Final Exam
173
Total Course Points
 

Learning Outcomes

By successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
  • Describe basic conflict resolution processes.
  • Evaluate body language.
  • Identify bullies.
  • Recognize power struggles.
  • Describe and identify slackers and energy vampires.
  • Recognize office gossip and its effects on the workplace.
  • Recognize and reconcile problematic personalities.
  • Describe methods for dealing with a bully as a boss.
  • Describe benefits of successful collaboration.
  • Demonstrate mastery of lesson content at levels of 70% or higher.
 

Additional Course Information

Online CEU Certificate
  • Document Your Lifelong Learning Achievements
  • Earn an Official Certificate Documenting Course Hours and CEUs
  • Verify Your Certificate with a Unique Serial Number Online
  • View and Share Your Certificate Online or Download/Print as PDF
  • Display Your Certificate on Your Resume and Promote Your Achievements Using Social Media
Document Your CEUs on Your Resume
 
Course Title: How to Deal with Difficult Personalities
Course Number: 7550249
Lessons Rating: 4.32 / 5 Stars (5,706 votes)
Languages: English - United States, Canada and other English speaking countries
Availability: You can take this course online in every U.S. state including California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, and Georgia. International availability includes English-speaking countries like Canada, Australia, the UK, and South Africa.
Last Updated: April 2024
Course Type: Self-Paced, Online Class
CEU Value: 0.7 IACET CEUs (Continuing Education Units)
CE Accreditation: Universal Class, Inc. has been accredited as an Authorized Provider by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET).
Grading Policy: Earn a final grade of 70% or higher to receive an online/downloadable CEU Certification documenting CEUs earned.
Assessment Method: Lesson assignments and review exams
Instructor: UniversalClass Instructional Team
Syllabus: View Syllabus
Course Fee: $120.00 U.S. dollars

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Student Testimonials

  • "Learning how to deal with difficulty personalities in the workplace is important because it teaches us coping mechanisms on how to handle them. For example, a novice worker can easily be swayed into a group of gossiping workers or be in a harmful situation by becoming a victim of bullying. Often we do not learn these defense techniques until much later in our working life. I would recommend this course be taught even earlier perhaps in secondary education before someone enters the workplace. Thank you!" -- Amanda H.
  • "I really appreciated this course! It was a good reminder of how to treat others in the workplace and how I want to be treated. It gave me some good pointers on how to deal with difficult people as well as not being one myself. Thank you!" -- Penny C.
  • "I thought this course was extremely useful, helpful and insightful and it has given me the tools I need if bullying at work ever happens again. Thank you." -- Suzanne D.
  • "I like this instructor very much. Gets to the point with easy to understand options on how to handle different situations. Good examples." -- Robin F.
  • "A lot of this material I already knew about just from being in the work force for so many years. However, the teacher introduced some new coping techniques that never occurred to me, and I am grateful for that." -- Gretchen T.
  • "I think the course was well thought out, easy to follow, and very informative and nicely broken into down into lessons." -- Cheryl E.
  • "I am really please with this course. This course made me realize just how much I have been a victim of bullying in the workplace." -- April M.
  • "I very much respect this instructor. I've taken several classes by him and I find him to be very knowledgeable and organizes his lessons in a way that makes sense." -- Brianna O.
  • "This was a great class that provides you with invaluable skills and tools to better deal with people that are difficult. I liked the instructor and she had all assignments and examsgraded in a ttimely fashion." -- Megan M.
  • "I thought the variety of activities and resources presented throughout each lesson made the course very interesting. I used the supplemental materials and these were also quite helpful." -- Beth M.
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