How to Recognize and Manage High-Conflict Personalities in the Workplace
We’ve all encountered them, and many of us have worked with one. Some of us have even left jobs we enjoyed simply to escape them. Who are these individuals so challenging to work with that they push others to the brink of quitting?
They’re high-conflict personalities—people who are often impossible to please and quick to blame others for their problems. Working with them can be mentally and emotionally draining, leaving colleagues feeling exhausted from the constant effort to manage their behavior.
In this episode of Great Practice, Great Life®, Steve sits down with Megan Hunter, co-founder of the High Conflict Institute and a renowned conflict expert. Megan, along with her co-founder Bill Eddy, specializes in teaching legal professionals and others how to identify and navigate high-conflict dynamics in the workplace.
In this first installment of Megan’s interview, you’ll learn:
- The four defining traits of a high-conflict personality.
- Why high-conflict individuals aren’t always the loudest or most obvious.
- How these individuals are often the reason employees leave firms—not the job itself.
Discover strategies to better understand and address high-conflict behavior in your workplace, ensuring a more positive and productive environment for everyone.
Inside This Episode
- How Megan Hunter became a coach and advisor on managing conflict and the co-founder of the High Conflict Institute
- How she approaches training people to deal with conflict if they’re in a relationship, like partners at a law firm
- Four characteristics to identify what a high-conflict person looks and sounds like
- Why high-conflict individuals don’t always yell
- What creates a high-conflict individual, and why someone else is always to blame for the problem
- Why high-conflict individuals may not feel the same exhaustion that those around them feel
- People leave firms because of high-conflict people but don’t relay that to anyone when they leave
