Originally Posted By: chaosmagnet
A quicker and more accessible method might be to read Dealing with Difficult People by Brinkman and Kirschner. You can knock it out in an evening and it may give you a bit of insight into how to deal with the subject matter. No affiliation.

I'll second this recommendation. I've actually recommended this book a couple times on various threads here, so I'll just quote what I said earlier:

Originally Posted By: Denis
I've done some learning about this recently for work and my 3 big takeaways were:

1. People do not want to be useless or hindrances
2. Difficult behaviours often arise from fundamentally good motivations
3. Understanding the motivation behind the behaviour helps you move beyond the difficult behaviour

Also key is, I am (and you are) sometimes the difficult person. Understanding our own core motivation and what unwanted behaviours we tend to manifest are just as important.

This learning was largely based on the book Dealing with Difficult People.
_________________________
Victory awaits him who has everything in order — luck, people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck. Roald Amundsen