When an angry employee or customer bursts into your office, rarely do you have time to prepare yourself. Often, you are not the target of that anger; but you must be able to bear the brunt of the emotional onslaught. How do you normally respond? Do you become confused?
Defensive? Disoriented? Are you always tempted to return anger with more anger? What is needed is self-control, calmness, a touch of assertiveness, and (most importantly) a sincere desire to solve whatever problem has caused the outburst...The suggestions elaborated upon in our eight-page e-Topic: How to handle an angry person will help you master the situation…

1. Acknowledge the person’s anger up front.
2. Be calm and confident.
3. Provide a non-threatening environment.
4.Listen to what the person has to say.
5. Ask questions.
6. Summarize the situation as you see it.
7. Work towards a solution.
8. Act on the solution.
9. Express appreciation.

The e-Topic concludes with a wealth of useful hints, advice, anecdotes and inspiration to help the reader better understand and implement the core material presented.

Do you want a brief fragment from the wealth of practical information in this e-Topic?
“When an agitated employee or customer comes to you with a complaint or crisis, force yourself to speak slowly. Take several breaths before beginning to speak, and then consciously slow down your speech rate. When they see that you are not stressing out or panicking over the situation, they will also calm down, and a solution can be worked out rationally. Panic can be catching and, if you in turn panic, others will surely follow suit.”

Simple, step-by-step solutions to your management problems and issues – that’s the aim of our e-Topics series. For busy managers, it’s literally management2go!