This is a complete guide to dealing with difficult people in your training sessions.
Chapter 1: How To Support Individuals Within A Training Session
Chapter 2: How To Choose What Training Games To Use In Your Courses
Chapter 3: Online Training Tools
Let’s dive right in.
Chapter 1: How To Support Individuals Within A Training Session
In this section, we’ll answer the question, ” How do I support different individuals within training sessions?”
While conducting a training session, the trainer needs to be able to support various individuals and situations while still achieving the objectives of the training program.
This document will explore how you, as a trainer, employ strategies to support ‘difficult people’ during training sessions.
The types of individuals covered are:
- The Monopolist
- The Arguer/Complainer/Critic
- The Joker/Clown
- The Know It All/Show-off
- The Interrupter/Rambler/Side Conversationalist
- The Clam/Doubter
- The Bully/Aggressor
Chapter 2: How To Deal With Difficult People Within A Training Session
We’ll now describe the behavior these difficult people can display and the strategies you can use to support them.
Let’s get started.
Name: The Monopolist
Description of behavior: This individual loves to hear themselves talk and will often go on forever asking a question or inserting a comment. If nothing stops them, they could talk without a break for the entire duration of the training course.
Strategy: As the trainer, you need to take control. You need to do this politely but firmly. These individuals do have things to contribute, but you also need to include everyone else.
Here are a few comments that you could intervene with:
- “Thanks for that question…”
- “That’s a great point – now let’s hear from XX.”
- “Let’s discuss this during the break or later in the session”.
- “Great example … now let’s hear what others think”
Name: The Arguer/Complainer/Critic
Description of behaviour: We grouped a few types of participants, and your response and their impact is much the same. Participants that constantly argue, squabble, complain, and criticize can majorly impact the group. They are most likely resentful about something, so they will try to debate, argue with their colleagues, and duly criticize everything. In some instances, they are unaware of their impact and may believe they are saving the session.
Strategy: Once the trainer has established that these individuals are not participating productively, he/she must start to take control of the training session. One natural way to cope with these individuals is to let the group “deal” with them.
Here are a few comments that you could intervene with:
- “Thanks for pointing it out. Would anyone like to react to this objection?”
- “Your position is clear to me. You think that… Let’s agree that we have different viewpoints on this matter”.
“I think we have given enough time to this issue, and we have to move on to the next subject on the training course. If you like, we will continue this discussion during the break”.
The main thing is not to engage in discussion with these individuals. Some empathy may be appropriate but you must consider the whole group and why you are there.
Name: The Joker/Clown
Description of behavior: Humor is positive in a training session but it can be taken too far. The main trait of a joker/clown is inappropriate and often annoying humor that disrupts the session.
Strategy: The trainer must deal carefully with such behavior by showing the person that it is not acceptable. “It’s really funny, but we have to move on to the next subject on the training course. We’ll share some more of this humor during the break.”
Name: The Know It All/Show-off
Description of behavior: The Know-It-All or Show-off acts as if they know everything about the course area. They frequently add comments to let everyone know how much they know. Many trainers do not see this person as a problem, but they can negatively impact the confidence of others in the group and must be managed appropriately.
Strategy: One of the best strategies is to let the group solve this problem. The trainer should acknowledge their expertise to get them on your side but encourage group dynamics to establish the natural ground rules of turn-taking.
Some comments that the trainer can use to direct focus include:
- “We know that you’re familiar with this model. What’s your experience with it?”
- “Thanks for sharing your experience, but what do others think?”
Overall, the best approach is to recognize that he/she knows a lot but that others have a lot to learn and need time to do this.
Name: The Interrupter/Rambler/Side Conversationalist
Description of behavior: We grouped a few types of participants as your response and their impact are much the same.
Participants who interrupt the session, those who don’t listen, or those who ramble on can greatly impact a training session. They like to interrupt and have side conversations that reduce the value of the training session to others.
Strategy: The trainer again must control this behavior on behalf of the group. The best method to handle this situation is to keep passing by these trainees to demonstrate that this behavior is not acceptable.
You can also use the following comments to re-direct them:
- “So what happened in the end?”
- “Can you summarize that in one sentence?”
- “Good point, but let’s get others to talk for a while?”
- “How does your perspective match what I have told you?”
Name: The Clam/Doubter
Description of behavior: The CLAM doesn’t contribute or participate. This might be due to shyness, lack of preparation, or disinterest.
Strategy: We must consider ways to get these individuals involved in active work. Participants can work in pairs or groups. While working in groups, arrange activities that require everyone to contribute.
Name: The Bully/Aggressor
Description of behavior: The bully and aggressive type of participant can have many different types of behavior. All are used to attract attention, e.g., be completely silent, non-participatory, or may complain about various aspects of the training like venue, chairs, and refreshments.
They can also attack the trainer when they observe a weakness in the material or its presentation.
This person may often not know that their actions may make the other participants uncomfortable or even detract from the training session.
Strategy: It can be impossible to answer this type of individual as often it has more to do with things outside the training.
It is best that you answer to the whole group, not personally.
The following will help:
Listen actively to this individual, hearing and responding to their issues but not to the emotion involved.
- “I see that you feel strongly about this. Would you like to hear what others feel about this?”
- “This is your opinion; let’s hear from others”.
As the trainer, you must note your emotions and not get defensive.
During a break, it may be appropriate to speak privately to discover the source of the behavior and how it can be supported so that the training goals can also be achieved.
Chapter 2: Reducing The Risk Of Conflict Within Your Courses
Here are some great tips that are easy to deploy when dealing with difficult people.
- Invest time in making each of your statements clear and easy to understand. Be open to accepting alternative suggestions from the group.
- Prevent the development of conflicts.
- Intervene when the group gets stuck with disagreements. A good way to do this is to use examples from your experience.
- Establish ways of working at the start of the training.
- Express your approval when someone from the group offers a proposal and treat the group members’ ideas in an open and friendly way.
- Follow the development of the ideas in the group, analyzing them tactfully and supporting them where necessary.
Chapter 3: Online Training Tools
Here is a quick list of some of the online tools that you can use to help you reduce the risk of conflict within your training games. Please note that we are not affiliated with any of these providers, and the list is provided for your convenience.
Keynote – Keynote makes creating stunning and memorable presentations easy and includes most Apple devices.
Prezi – Unlike screen sharing, Prezi Video lets you interact with your visuals on screen.
LinkedIn SlideShare – Share what you know and love through presentations, infographics, documents, and more.
Zoho Show—Bring your team to a secure and collaborative workspace where everything is available to everyone in real time. Create, collaborate, and get work done securely.
FlowVella – Blow your audience away in one interactive presentation experience.
LibreOffice Impress – LibreOffice is a free and powerful office suite and a successor to OpenOffice.org (commonly known as OpenOffice). Its clean interface and feature-rich tools help unleash creativity and enhance productivity.
Ludus – collaborative presentations for creative teams.The presentation tool that combines creativity with simplicity… and a bit of magic.
PowToon—Powtoon is a visual communication platform that allows you to create professional, fully customized videos that your audience will love.
Speaker Deck – Turning your decks into beautiful online experiences can be a pain.
Visme – Create visual brand experiences for your business whether you are a seasoned designer or a total novice.
WPS Presentation – free and complete office suite
authorSTREAM – the best way to share presentations on the web
Genially – Create presentations, infographics, and other stunning content with your team.
Canva – With thousands of professional templates, images, and quality content, get a headstart on bringing your best ideas and work to life.
Beautiful.ai – It’s an expert deck designer, so you don’t have to be. Make your business look brilliant, keep your team forever on brand, and save hours on pitches you’re proud of.
Ahaslides—Create interactive presentations for awestruck audiences. It is the perfect tool for lessons, training, meetings, and quizzes.
Conclusion
That’s our guide to dealing with difficult people during training sessions.
Which type of person do you find the most challenging to deal with from today’s guide?
Let us know by contacting us.
And, please don’t forget to share this guide.
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With 30+ years of training experience, Catherine Fitzgerald, B.A., M.A., PGDip, founded Oak Innovation (oakinnovation.com) in 1995. Catherine received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from University College Cork. She holds qualifications in Professional Development And Training from University College Galway. Since 1995, clients include Apple, Time Warner, and Harvard University.
