Whether a person is actually difficult or not can be a matter of perspective. Regardless, when you find a person is difficult for you to deal with, then it is time to pay attention to your own responses to ensure you are not derailed from your own priorities. Difficult people can easily consume our focus and our energy simply because we let them. Many of my clients are executives on the rise, and can feel at the mercy of politics in their organization. They see one or more of

When you lead in an organization, it is a safe bet that sooner or later you will sweat over something – and I’m not talking about the small stuff. When that happens, leaders tend to fall into two camps – those who stuff the feelings of overwhelm, and try not to let anyone (least of all themselves) realize what’s happening, out of fear of appearing incapable. The second camp not only show their overwhelm, they are darned proud of it, and flaunt it. However, there is a quiet, t

As one of my mentors likes to remind me, “One thing is certain: you will always have to work with people.” Toxic people at work is something we all deal with sooner or later. It might be a client, a peer, boss or business partner. Personally, I have had experience with all of these at various times. The common denominator among toxic people is behavior that has a strong negative impact on others’ emotional and mental wellbeing. Of course, no one can force another person to re

Working remotely has hardly been a cure for the toxic workplace. In fact, it can actually make a bad situation worse, moving toxic behaviors online where they can be harder to identify and address.  Toxicity always starts with relationships – whether they are with coworkers, bosses, or even business partners. Toxic individuals create strong negative influences on your own mental state – and in the case of a toxic workplace, they infect the entire culture adversely. Alarmingly