Career Readiness · Communication · Lesson Plan
Dealing with Difficult People
A free lesson plan defining difficult behavior in the workplace and introducing techniques for handling it — built on the honest premise that anyone is potentially difficult, including ourselves, and that the focus should be on behavior rather than the person. Free to read and reproduce.
What Students Learn
Learning objectives
- How to define difficult behavior in the workplace — and why it has no absolute definition
- Why context and relationship matter — two people may react entirely differently to the same boss
- The lesson’s foundational reframe: focus on the behavior, not the person — anyone can be difficult in the right circumstances
- Techniques for recognizing and naming difficult behavior when it appears
- Practical techniques for handling difficult coworkers, customers, or supervisors without escalating the conflict
- How to recognize your own difficult behavior — the self-awareness piece that most students initially overlook
For Teachers
How to use this lesson
Method: Introduce the topic by explaining that we all need to deal with difficult people, and that we can cope with such situations by recognizing difficult behavior and improving our techniques for handling it. Have students read the comprehension passage and the activity sheet. Walk through the true/false activity (answers: 1.T, 2.F, 3.T, 4.T, 5.F, 6.T, 7.T, 8.T, 9.F, 10.F, 11.T) and debrief.
Discussion prompts: Have students think of a time someone was difficult to them — not by name, just the situation. What was the behavior? What did they do? What might have worked better? The honest version of this discussion includes asking students to also identify a time they were the difficult one. That’s the moment the lesson lands.
Related lesson: Principles of Effective Communication. Difficult-people skills are applied communication skills — the same toolkit, used in higher-stakes situations. Best taught alongside How to Be Assertive and Giving and Receiving Criticism as a workplace-communication sequence.
Free Lesson
Dealing with Difficult People — Lesson + True/False Activity
The complete lesson plan, comprehension passage, and true/false activity sheet are free to read and reproduce on the legacy resources site.
The lesson plan and activity sheet are free to read.
Related Topics
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