Think of someone at work whose five-minute conversation can take you an hour to recover from.
Got someone in mind?
Now ask yourself how much of your week you’ve actually given them. Not the conversation itself. The aftermath. The replay loop in your head when you should have been working. The two hours of lost focus because one comment landed wrong.
That’s today’s episode of The KEY to Your Next Step: Dealing with Difficult People ~ Protecting Your Energy and Focus.
My cohost Trevor wrote CFTEA’s eBook on the topic. In the episode we cover the categories most difficult people fall into (chronic complainer, know-it-all, bully, frenemy, and a few more you’ll recognize), why your brain treats short difficult interactions as lingering stress triggers, and the line we kept coming back to: you don’t get to choose every interaction, but you do get to choose how you show up in it.
It’s a more honest take than most “how to handle difficult people” content, because we aren’t trying to fix the difficult person. We’re trying to protect your energy so you can still do the work.
Listen on Spotify.
And while we’re on the subject: the Effective Communication Bundle is 15% off all of July. Six courses on the skills that prevent most “difficult people” friction before it starts. Listening, communication style awareness, generational differences, written communication, modern messaging, and relationship building. Practical companion to today’s episode.