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ASK THE LEADEROLOGIST
Dear Leaderologist,
I work for a large corporation as a trainer in the human resource department. I love training. I recently had a bad experience with one of the participants. He was very vocal and disruptive in the session. How do I engage a difficult person without alienating them and without feeling personally attacked?
Bewildered, Cleveland Ohio
Dear Bewildered,
I truly understand where you are coming from. I’ve had a few of those incidents myself. Usually when an individual acts out in a training session, it is because they think they know more than the trainer does, or they seek attention, or both. What I usually do is:
1. I don’t get into a verbal fight (that’s what they want). I’ll encourage them to share with the entire group their thinking. I’ll say something like, “Well Mike your opinion is valid, why don’t you elaborate? We are all here to learn from each other.”
2. Or I will allow that person to become the trainer for a few minutes. (This gives them the attention they seek and usually dissipates any hostility that individual may have.
3. There is another option that I use, I simply ignore them and keep my focus on the group.
One thing to remember, stay objective and don’t take it personal. As trainers, we don’t know it all and most often we learn from others as we conduct training sessions, even the very vocal ones.
Dear Leaderologist,
I work in a teaching hospital in Virginia. A senior manager from another department recently recruited me to head up a new project team. One of my first tasks was to make recommendations on who would be included on the team. Considering that I was new to the department and didn’t know many people, I expected my senior manager to offer advice or give me guidance, of which he offered none. I feel like I’ve been setup to fail. How do I make intelligent choices on who to include on the team when I haven’t been in the department long enough to evaluate individuals who might make potentially good teammates?
Team Leader-In-Distress
Dear Team Leader,
No need to be distressed. Take the lead. Go to your senior manager and seek his advice. He could be waiting on you. Let your manager know that you need a heads-up on people in the areas of proficiency, skills and experience, and ask him if he has any suggestions. Another approach would be to talk to people in the department asking for recommendations. Think about it, why would he recruit you and set you up for failure? Could it be that his plate is full? You’ll never know if you don’t ask.
LeaderShipology,
Inc. - 367 Jewett Ave. Suite 100 - Staten
Island, NY 10302
leadershipology@earthlink.net
LeaderShipology, Inc. Copyright 2008