Presentation Profile
The Lab Manager’s Survival Guide for Dealing with Difficult People
Currently Scheduled: 10/16/2024 - 8:00 AM - 8:50 AM
Room: Hibiscus
Main Author
Tamara Perry - Labtopia
Abstract:
The Lab Manager’s Survival Guide for Dealing with Difficult People
I once asked a colleague how her transition from Lab Tech to Lab Manager was going. Her response, “I majored in Forensics for a reason, dead people don’t talk back”. While funny and slightly morbid, many Laboratory Managers feel the same way. The idea of managing people with their opinions, emotions, stresses, and the various ways individuals deal with and express those can be a daunting task. Especially for Laboratory Managers who are more comfortable dealing with controlled experiments and logic-based outcomes than the variable elements of human interpersonal reactions and response cues.
In this session, we will develop an understanding of what constitutes difficult behavior, how to identify difficult personalities, and the root causes of behaviors that are challenging. Self-reflection activities are included to help participants analyze their own behaviors, attitudes, biases, and beliefs. Participants will walk away with a Survival Guide for dealing with difficult people with science-based tools, tips, and strategies that can be implemented immediately to deal with challenging individuals, to learn how to survive difficult situations and deal successfully with different personality types, including challenging individuals.
