Guide to clients and candidates who imitate nursing babies!

Morning all,

I just finished reading:

The Freelancer’s Guide to Working With Clients That SUCK

To wit:
..."Some of your clients will be wonderful. Most will be average. And some are going to suck. That’s the way it is. Some can suck so bad, you’ll be tempted to get out of freelancing altogether if you’re not prepared to deal with them."....

and think there's a lot in there that can apply to ANY service industry, such as recruiting. It's a terrific read. Hence this article!

What are YOUR coping methods for dealing with clients and candidates who make shaving porcupines with a toothpick something more desirable than dealing with them? I generally will repeat to myself, I cannot choose how others act, but I can choose how I respond...sometimes determining that particular response WITHOUT enjoying mega amounts of stress is character-building indeed.

How 'bout you?

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Permalink Reply by Ambrish Kochikar on November 11, 2009 at 10:02am

Thanks for the post, Barbara! I enjoyed reading it, despite the flashbacks. Your mantra is worth repeating over and over. When I'm dealing with a difficult situation like this, I try to:
1. separate the person from their behavior
2. think about how others might have surmounted the same obstacle successfully and that i'm not the first or the last person to interact with 'your highness' in their 'supreme season of reason'
3. keep the objective front and center while verbalizing what we both want to see happen, rather than dwell on the difficulty of the situation. talking about and reminding them about that place we want to to get to can be a great impetus to push through the worst of it.