How To Deal With Jerks And Idiots - The Practical Manual to Survive in Many Situations. Specially in Here!

Have you ever noticed that your co-workers tend to fall into two categories? First, you have the idiots – those lovely, well-intentioned people that don’t seem to have a clue what they’re doing. Second, you have the jerks – the people who are difficult to deal with, stubborn and always wrong. And they’re not just in your office! On the highway, the idiots are the people driving more slowly than you, while the jerks are the people whizzing by you in the left lane. At the grocery store, the idiots are blocking the ice cream aisle, while the jerks are pushing your cart aside to reach the soup. It feels like they’re following you around, doesn’t it? In fact, toward the end of a bad day, it can start to feel downright personal!

But the fact is, people simply don’t fall neatly into these categories by virtue ofwho they are. On the contrary, we put them there. When we meet someone new, within minutes we are judging and labeling: Is he like me? Does he agree with me? And it’s not a coincidence that the people who agree with us are smart, funny and interesting… while the people who don’t agree are jerks or otherwise fundamentally flawed.

Why is this important to remember in the workplace? Because time and time again, I hear teams and managers cite personality conflicts and incompetence as the reasons for their low productivity and dysfunction. I’m telling you, this is a dead-end street. When teams cling to the idea that the roots of conflict are personal, it establishes a paradigm in which there is no real solution.

Though it feels easier and safer in the short run to place the blame on unreasonable or incompetent co-workers, it is simply not a useful story to tell ourselves. It is a distortion of reality that can undermine our decisions and alienate our teams.

Fortunately, personality clashes are not insurmountable obstacles to productivity and success. The vast majority of employees (and managers!) are more than capable of resolving disagreements and even working with people they don’t like. In many cases, they simply need clarity and direction from their leaders. In my experience with dozens of organizations, I’ve found that eliminating ambiguity in goals, roles and procedures can absolutely melt away the personality conflicts.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/cywakeman/2013/02/21/how-to-deal-with-jerks-and-idiots/