MANAGING TOUGH PEOPLE 

A. It is said that there are two golden rules one has to remember while dealing with tough people. One, never react, but respond. Two, try to understand people and then communicate with them.

B. You come across a number of people every day and many of them turn out to be difficult fellows. It is quite likely that you yourself are a tough nut to crack. How do you know whether somebody is a tough fellow or not? Not very difficult to find out. Just look around and spot those who are more demanding, aggressive, authoritative, intimidating, unwilling to follow through or who are never happy. Such people are always there at your workplace and in your neighborhood. Handling such people may not be easy, but there are certain tactics one can adopt to win over such people.

C. First of all, give a patient hearing to them and understand what they have to say. Ensure that you don't get into an argument in the process. If you are able to maintain your cool and stay polite and keep your conversation precise and to the point, even the toughest people won't get a chance to behave negatively. If you have a feeling that they can make you nervous, ensure that somebody else is also present when you are talking to them. 

D. If the person whom you are talking to criticizes you or passes sarcastic remarks on you, ensure that you focus on finding a solution and do not accept his inappropriate and indecent behaviour. When you do this, you are actually responding to the situation instead of reacting to it. If you react, you will fall into the trap set by him to keep you feel unstable. It is a fact that in a difficult conversation, the person who loses his cool first loses.

E. Some people may appear to be very cold and closed off, and may not open up. When you come across such people, be sure that they are hiding something. Here you have to be extremely patient. Ask open-ended questions and take them gradually to their comfort zone. They will definitely open up.

F. How difficult is it to deal with an arrogant fellow? For many, nothing could be more difficult than this. Studies show that these people generally have a feeling of insecurity and, by behaving arrogantly, they try to cover up their true feelings. Most of the time, they avoid taking responsibility for a problem. They know that they would be caught if they try to blame others. To handle such people you have to ensure that you are in the right. It would be better if you have dependable evidence to prove your stand. 

G. If you have a few habitual complainers in your organisation, they have the potential to bring doom to the organisation. We all feel quite uncomfortable with cynics. Beware of such people. Do not entertain their complaints till they come up with some solution to the problems. This will force them to mend their ways and there will be fewer complaints in future. 

H. How can you handle people who are always busy in talking and talking and don't want to listen to you? The best way is to tell them that you have just one minute for them and they must finish within that time. If they don't finish, do interrupt and tell that you have to get back to something more important. 

I.  If somebody is in the habit of shirking his responsibilities at the workplace, it is really disappointing. They are always in search of short-cuts which would require more effort than what it would take to do the job in the first place. Never protect them. If they ask for any assistance, ask them to make a list of things they need to accomplish their task. It is a fact that disorganized and unfocused people generally keep things pending. The only way to deal with such people is set firm deadlines, emphasise the importance of meeting such deadlines and also let them know the consequences if they fail. Get a firm commitment from them and monitor the progress on a regular basis. This approach will not give any excuses to them. 

J. What will you do, if you are not able to deal with certain types of people? You cannot always hang out there with people who don't allow you to move on. And if you are not able to move on, then probably you won't be able to keep your team together. If you find the going difficult with certain people, you have to think and rethink about the utility of working with them especially when they continue to behave in an unacceptable manner. 

K. Finally, managing difficult people is an art. If you are good at it, success is yours. If you are able to predict the other person's behaviour, it would be very helpful. To a great extent you can trust your instincts and you must. Anyhow, you cannot allow the tough guys nag you every time.

L. The CEO of the famous US based financial services company, the Phelps Group has devised a unique method to resolve issues in his company. They don't have too many rules in their company. They recruit only adults; the benefit is that there is no need to teach them how to behave. If a team member has a problem with someone in the company, he has to approach the fellow directly and sort out issue. If this direct approach does not work, they can bring in two other team members known to both the people to resolve the issue. If felt necessary, even an outsider can be brought in to help resolve the issue as a final step. The greatest advantage of this strategy is that it creates harmony and mutual respect at the workplace so much so that serious interpersonal problems won't crop up in the first place.

THE TASMANIAN DEVIL

 1. The world's largest surviving carnivorous marsupial has the size of a small dog. Its fierce screaming sound, black color and bad temper to scare others gave it the name 'The Devil'.  They are generally not aggressive until it comes to food. They can even kill their fellow devils in order to grab their catch. They feed on decaying bodies of dead animals and don't leave anything to pollute the environment. They can even crush their whole carcass along with their meat, fur and bones with their powerful jaws. 

2. Once these devils occupied the mainland Australia but today they are only found in Tasmania (near the coasts and the mountains) where they can easily hide during the day and find food at night. They are a shy kind of creatures and usually prefer to live alone in their own company. They are usually active after dark and can cover a distance up to 16 km in search of their food. They produce a strong odor when under stress but are not smelly at all when calm.   

3.   They are internationally known as the inspiration for the famous 'Looney Tunes' cartoon character, 'The Tasmania's Devil' or 'Taz' is a sturdy deadly beast with powerful jaws like a steel trap.  It has aly one thing in mind that is eating. It keeps on eating tigers, lions, elephants, donkeys, buffaloes, octopuses, chicken, ducks etc. It has the power to devour everything.

 4.   The Tasmanian devils have short legs with clawed feet and a hairy tail. They have black fur with white marking on neck and shoulders and on the rump. Their pale pink ears turn red when angry. They have brown circle round their eyes and a black nose. The end of the snout is light brown. They are around 20 to 30 inches long. The length of the body of males is 652 mm, tail is 258 mm and average weight is 13 to 22 pounds whereas females are smaller in size. 

5. According to the recent researches, these interesting devils are much prone to large facial tumors known as DFTD. This Devil Facial Tumor Disease is characterized by cancers around the mouth and heads.   At the end of the year 2007, this Devil Facial Tumor Disease was confirmed at almost 60 different locations of Tasmania's mainland, which means 59% of the land was infected. Once this cancer becomes visible, it becomes completely inevitable within several months. Small lesions, in and around the mouth quickly develop into large tumors on the face and neck and may be on some other parts of the body too. Due to these lumps around mouth it becomes difficult for them to eat. And usually the reason of their death becomes starvation and the breakdown of body functions. Researchers found that this disease is passing from one animal to another by the cancer cells. So, there was an agreement that the disease-free devils must be reserved as an Insurance" against loss of wild devils and will be kept in fenced areas, isolated islands or zoos outside Tasmania.