Coping with Difficult People: The Proven-Effective Battle Plan That Has Helped Millions Deal with the Troublemakers in Their Lives at Home and at Work

I've read this book at least a dozen times since I purchased it, and it only gets better with each rereading. Bramson provides an amazingly easy-to-read yet useful strategy for coping (primarily in the workplace) with difficult people. Rather than attempt to give advice on assertiveness training for the reader, Bramson instead encourages the reader to more carefully observe the situation and analyze the difficult person's behavior. Realizing that difficult people behave in a difficult manner because they have learned that such behaviors help them get their own way is a major lesson that Bramson teaches. Bramson not only covers overt bullying (he calls these people "bulldozers")but also equally difficult people who are overly quiet, sarcastic, procrastinate, or habitually nay-say. I suffer from several such people at my college department (a psychology department no less!) and I can vouch for the truth of Bramson's wisdom. This book is not a quick-fix, but it can help you cope with other's difficult behavior. I recommend this to anyone whose job requires teamwork. This book is pop psychology at its finest.

Usually I don't like books of this sort because I find them simplistic. Admittedly this book is written for a general audience, but the author still makes an effort (and succeeds, in my opinion) in distinguishing between people who fit in to one of his types and people who can be difficult at times, but don't quite fit in a specific category. I never had the feeling of "oh, that could be anyone." And the techniques he gave to deal with difficult people were concise and easy to use. He really focuses on the fact that we can't change others, we can only change how we chose to respond, which is vital. A very positive, encouraging, readable book. I've already noticed a difference in my relationships after only a few weeks.

Coping with Difficult People is an amazingly useful book. Difficult people are all around you, even when you're alone: Most people don't realise just how difficult and unconstructive they can be! This book gives helps you identify difficult behaviour, and how to get around it.WHAT THIS BOOK GIVES YOUDifficult behaviour is not all that difficult to identify. That is, unless you're in the middle of a confrontation and you're either too annoyed or intimidated or distracted to realise what's taking place. This book won't turn you into a psychologist, but it will teach you how to identify difficult, destructive, problematic behaviour in people, and how to cope with it.This book is about coping. You can't always convince someone, and when someone's determinsed to make life difficult for you you can't always win. But you can try to push ahead, keep your cool, remain focused and constructive and pleasant and not be trampled on. If you're experiencing a difficult time because of co-workers or friends or family members, having read this book, your life will not become all of a sudden easier and simpler and nicer. Difficult people will continue to make your life difficult. But if you follow the suggestions in the book you should be able to neutralise most of the difficult behaviour to the point where you can get things done.WHY DOES IT WORKS WITH OTHERSThis book will help you because it's recipe oriented, and if you become adept at it, you will be able to use its suggestions under pressure -- the elements of surprise or helplessness in the difficult behaviour will be missed on you. Key phrases, key words, body language are used to identify a type of difficult behaviour/person. Then a basic approach is tailored around the type of difficult person you're dealing with, though you will need to adapt the material in the book to your particular environment, situation and style. The better you anticipate an encounter with a difficult person and plan for it, the less of a surprise will that person enjoy, the less a sense of inevitability and helplessness will he be able to instill in you. In that sense, this book is the equivalent to a book on Chess openings. It's very effective.WHY DOES IT WORKS WITH YOURSELFAlmost everybody is a difficult person sometimes. This book will help you identify patterns of difficult behaviour in yourself, and will give you some rudimentry insight into why you're behaving that way. Becoming conscious of when you exhibit difficult, uncooperative, destructive behaviour -- with what people, in what situations, etc, is a first step to curbing these tendencies within yourself.

I found this book (audiotape)to be an excellent and very practical manual on how to handle both difficult people in everyday situations as well as everyday people in difficult situations. What is really good about this book is that it gives the exact sentences, words, and phrases to use in various situations. It provides an actual script for what needs to be said when coping with difficult people.