Make Difficult People Disappear

Is Everyone Difficult?

“Difficult people” seem to be everywhere. They can be so hard to handle that you might be too irritated to consider how they got that way. You just wish they'd disappear.

They can, but not by magic. Difficult people vanish when you change your attitude toward them. Stop seeing them as irritating and, presto, they won’t be. Most seemingly difficult people are merely different. The way they think is not the way you think. How they handle things seems strange. You may mistakenly see these distinctive people as taxing, overly sensitive or even deliberately obstructive. The business fable that follows demonstrates how you can have more harmonious relationships with people you perceive as difficult if something changes – not in them, but in you.

Cybil: The Queen of Difficult

Cybil is a wife, a mother and an executive. She is an accomplished type A personality with terrific drive and focus. She is so task oriented and busy that she posts a reminder to sleep on her daily to-do list. Cybil believes that far too many of the people she deals with are difficult, including her husband, her son, her sister, her mother, her boss, many...