Archive for the ‘angry person’ tag
"No one moves while they're angry" – 2 tips for dealing with angry people
Like the rich, angry people are different from you and I…
Seth Godin puts it elequently:
It’s tempting to treat an angry person just like a typical person, just… angrier.
This is probably a mistake, because anger brings its own reality along with it.
let that sink in – anger brings its own reality along with it.
An angry customer isn’t just a little less valuable than a non-angry customer.
In fact, she’s on a curve all her own.
You’re not even in the same universe as the angry person,
let alone the same page.
I have two suggestions for dealing with angry folks:
1. Sometimes, you can just avoid them.
You can choose not to work with angry people. Just move on.
There are plenty of non-angry people out there.
Not always an option at work, but the best option when it’s available.
The temptation is to go for this solution even and especially when it’s not an option.
2. You can acknowledge the anger and understand that
until you make the anger go away, all responses are going to be
off the charts and completely useless to you.
here’s another one to let sink in slowly -
until the anger goes away, none of your normal tools work:
Appeals to fairness don’t work.
Appeals to reason don’t work.
The opportunity in working with an angry person is that
you can somehow turn that angry person into a non-angry one…
and from there, move them up the curve to a relationship you both value.The mistake marketers make all the time is that we believe that
moving the person up the curve is the next step.It’s not.
No one moves while they’re angry.
In essence, they’re fighting you
and your first reasonable reaction is to defend yourself
against the barrage directed at you.
Which causes you to get angry, or at least defensive,
until you realize that they’re not angry at you,
they’re merely angry near you.