Executive Assistants, Administrative Assistants, Secretaries and any person who is in administrative support role interacts with hundreds of people over time. There is a lot of training and information telling us how to deal with difficult people.

One thing I talk about in my programs on difficult people is that sometimes because we have different views and ways of doing things we think the other person is being difficult. But they really aren’t; they just don’t see things our way or perceive situations the way we see them. This is very useful insight and helps diminish anger, resentment or frustration we might feel when dealing with a “perceived” difficult person.

I was in a great workshop the other day and the speaker was talking about relationships, self-esteem, our attitudes and more. She provided many tips but the one that resonated with me is:

“Adapt to the situation or get out!”

She was telling the audience that another person is not usually going to change to the way we want them to be and therefore, we get disappointed. We may even get to the point where our frustration comes out in anger. I know from my Star Achievement Series® training program on fighting office dragons, I say, “People are adults and they are going to do as they choose. We can try to help someone see their negative attitude or wrong-doing, but we cannot make them change. When we can’t change the other person, we can focus on self-change.”

That is exactly what the speaker, said this weekend. She said when the other person is not going to change, either adapt or get out! That was pretty straight forward. That is advice all of us can use in any relationship. Another great tip from our speaker was that have to change our behavior with that person or our attitude about that person if we are to be happy. Great words of advice!