Office Assistant Week 5: Business Letters & Communication Skills PDF

OFFICE ASSISTANT WEEK 5- THE BUSINESS LETTER, COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS, OFFICE MANAGEMENT AND SUPERVISION. THE BUSINESS LETTER Despite constantly improving forms of communication such as e-mail, the business letter still exerts enormous influence and deserves your close attention. Business letters ar...

OFFICE ASSISTANT WEEK 5- THE BUSINESS LETTER, COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS, OFFICE MANAGEMENT AND SUPERVISION. THE BUSINESS LETTER Despite constantly improving forms of communication such as e-mail, the business letter still exerts enormous influence and deserves your close attention. Business letters are more formal and personal than e-mail. They are also more private. Very few customers of a business ever see the home office or a branch office; this is often true even of small businesses. What customers do see is company correspondence. An untidy or ungrammatical letter gives the instant impression that the company’s product or service is equally flawed. On the other hand, upon receiving a handsomely spaced, well-constructed, and well-organized letter, a customer unconsciously assumes it has come from an up-to-date, well-organized, and successful business. Letter writing occupies at least one-third of all office work, and good writing is the most effective advertisement of your capability. Any skills you can acquire or improve in this area do double duty: They help you work more quickly and effectively while advancing your career. THE BUSINESS LETTER Besides the skills you need for your own writing, you need to learn techniques of letter writing to handle your boss’s correspondence. Most successful businesspeople have already mastered the mechanics of language, but many in authoritative positions lack such skills. They rely on their administrative assistants to see that their letters are satisfactory. Any letter that comes from your keyboard—whether composed by you or your employer—must have a businesslike appearance that does not distract from the message it has to convey. The letter must be neat and symmetrical, and it must not have any typographical, grammatical, or spelling errors. Its language should clearly and simply go to the heart of the matter discussed. Its language and appearance should also be within the conventions of the commercial world. That is the reason each company selects its own style for presentation to its public. The way in which a company is known to its customers, its good name, its reputation, and the quality of its products or services all comprise the corporate image. Image is very important, and many companies spend fortunes to have the image instantly recognized by the consumer, so no matter what style the company uses, use it consistently. This helps make the company’s correspondence characteristically its own. That consistency also translates into dependability in the customer’s mind. THE BUSINESS LETTER- PARAGRAPHING If you are new to the company, it’s not likely you’ll be invited to decide on which style of letter to use. A certain style may have already been selected long ago after various experiments. In accordance with that style, you’ll be instructed to indent paragraphs or to block them and to put a double-space between paragraphs that are single-spaced. Your boss will no doubt also tell you his or her way of closing a letter, perhaps with the company’s name and his or her signature with title below. You should conform to your employer’s preference without question. At the same time, you’ll be told about open punctuation (no marks at the end of each line outside the text of the letter) or closed punctuation (marks after the date line, after each line of the addressee’s name and address, after the complimentary close, and after the signature). Closed punctuation is usually used with blocked paragraphs. THE BUSINESS LETTER- PARTS OF A BUSINESS LETTER The various parts of a business letter (Figure 27–1) include: Dateline—Two to six lines below the last line of the printed letterhead. The date should be written out in this form: January 1, 2008. Reference line—A numerical file number, invoice number, policy number, or order number should appear on a new line below the date. Special mailing notations—Special notations such as “confidential” should appear two lines below the date. THE BUSINESS LETTER- PARTS OF A BUSINESS LETTER Inside address—Should include the addressee’s title and full name, business title, business name, and full address. Attention line—If the letter is not addressed to any specific person, skip one space after the inside address and add “Attention: __________.” You can make the letter go to the attention of a department. Salutation—One line after the attention line or the inside address. Examples include: Dear__________, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Sir or Madam, Dear (company name). Subject line—Gives an overview of what the letter is about. Can be used in place of a salutation. THE BUSINESS LETTER- PARTS OF A BUSINESS LETTER Message—The body of your letter with paragraph breaks; optional indentations for paragraphs, bullet lists, and number lists. Complimentary close—Appears two lines below the last line of the message. Either left justified or five spaces to the right of center. Signature block—Justified with the complimentary close with options of typed name and title, signature, or just signature. Identification initials—The initials of the typist appear left-justified two spaces below the signature block. THE BUSINESS LETTER- PARTS OF A BUSINESS LETTER Enclosure notation—Located with the identification initials or in place of the with the a notation such as: enc, encl, enclosures (3), 3 encs. Copy notation—Left-justified two lines below identification initials with the notation: cc: (person’s full name or initials). Postscript—Two spaces below the last text on the page with a P.S. and then a short sentence. THE BUSINESS LETTER- BEGINNING THE LETTER The Date Line Some offices show the standard date line near the body of the letter, ending at the right margin two spaces above the name of the addressee, which is written flush with the left margin. If the centered date line is chosen, it is placed two spaces below the letterhead as though it’s part of the letterhead and centered exactly. This is an effective and well balanced look if the company name and address in the letterhead fall in the center. If the letterhead is spread out across the whole top of the page ending at the right margin, then the standard date line seems more graceful and more balanced. When paper without a letterhead is used, the date line must be standard and must be a part of the three-line heading. This consists of the address of the writer and the date of the letter: THE BUSINESS LETTER- THE INSIDE ADDRESS The Inside Address The name and address of the addressee should be exactly as typed on the envelope. If a street address is long enough to require two lines, place the less important of the two above. If an individual in a company is addressed, show the individual’s name (and title) with the company’s name below that, single-spaced. If there is a long address that must be carried over to a second line, indent the second line three spaces. Never abbreviate part of the company name unless the company’s registered name uses an abbreviation (Co., Inc., or &) and such abbreviation is shown on the company’s official letterhead. Figures are used for all house numbers except “one” (which is spelled out). If there is a numerical street number, separate the house number and street number by a dash. THE BUSINESS LETTER- TITLES Titles An individual’s name is always preceded by a title, for example, Mr., Ms., Mrs., Miss, Dr., or Col. It’s permissible to place initials denoting a degree after the name of an addressee; in that case, always omit the beginning title: WRONG: RIGHT: Dr. Gary K. Wilson, Ph.D. Gary K. Wilson, Ph.D. THE BUSINESS LETTER- TITLES- MEN AND WOMEN In addressing a woman, it’s useful to refer to previous correspondence from the individual to see whether she included a courtesy title when she typed or signed her name. If you have no previous correspondence, use these general guidelines: Miss is used for an unmarried woman; Mrs. is used with her husband’s full name (if known) for a married woman or a widow. If a divorcee retains her married name, use Mrs. plus her own name, not her husband’s. Ms. is used in any of the above cases if the woman prefers it; it’s also used if you do not know the woman’s marital status or if you’re addressing a divorcee who has resumed her maiden name. Address a professional woman by her title, followed by her given and last name: Dr. Bernice Wilson THE BUSINESS LETTER- TITLES- MEN AND WOMEN The previous custom was to use Mr. as the title when the gender of the addressee was in doubt. The current custom, to avoid giving offense, is more likely to use the addressee’s full name without a title, in both the address and the salutation Dear Toby Wilson However, if the letter has some importance, it’s worth making a quick call to the other party to get the proper title. Simply say to whoever answers the telephone: “I’m addressing a letter to Pat Richardson. Is that Mr. Richardson or Ms.?” This can save you and your employer much embarrassment later on. THE BUSINESS LETTER- TITLES- BUSINESS TITLES Business titles are never abbreviated: WRONG: RIGHT: Mr. Mark Giddens, Sr. Ed. Mr. Mark Giddens, Senior Editor Ms. Julie Seckman, Asst. Mgr. Ms. Julie Seckman, Assistant Manager When you are writing to a person holding more than one office within a company, use the highest title, unless you are replying to a specific letter signed by him or her under another title as applying to the subject covered. When you are writing to a department of a company, rather than to a person within the company, place the company name on the first line and the department on the second line. THE BUSINESS LETTER- ATTENTION LINE An attention line refers the letter to the person or department in charge of the situation covered. The word Attention is followed by the name of the individual or department. Do not abbreviate the word Attention or follow it with a colon. The attention line is placed two spaces below the last line of the name and address of the addressee, either flush with the left margin of the letter or in the center of the page when paragraphs are blocked. When paragraphs are indented, the attention line is placed in the center of the page. The attention line is never used in a letter to an individual but only in a letter having a plural addressee, in which case the letter is written to the entire company and not to he person named in the attention line. The salutation must always agree (singular or plural) with the name of the addressee, not with the name on the attention line. THE BUSINESS LETTER- SALUTATION The salutation is typed two spaces below the addressee’s address or the attention line, flush with the left tmargin. The first word of the salutation begins with a capital, as does the name of the addressee. In business letters, the salutation is followed by a colon. In personal letters, the salutation is followed by a comma: Dear Governor Thompson: My Dear Mrs.Thomas: Dear Jane, Sometimes you are required to write a letter addressed to no particular person or company (such as a letter of recommendation); then you use capitals for the salutation: TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: THE BUSINESS LETTER- SUBJECT LINE The subject line of a letter is an informal way of categorizing or titling the letter. Many letters in business must begin with a subject line after the salutation, a valuable aid in the distribution of mail that also facilitates filing. The subject line can be centered, but when the paragraphs are blocked, it is flush with the left margin. Do not type “Re” or “Subject” before the subject line. Underline the subject line, but if it occupies more than one line, underline only the bottom line, letting the line extend the length of the longest line in the subject. Be sure to word the subject line so that it is helpful. If the letter is about an order of silk, a subject line reading simply “Silk” would contribute nothing. If, however, the subject line should read “Silk Returned, Our Shipping Order 8939” the clerk opening the letter could promptly route it to the person within the organization best able to reply. THE BUSINESS LETTER- CONTENTS With the body of the letter, first consider its appearance. You must judge how long the letter will be and how much space it will occupy in order to place it on the page as within a picture frame—never too high, never too low, always with proper side margins. If you create the letter with word-processing software, you can add spaces to the top of the letter or change the page margins after you have written the letter. The body of the letter should be brief and straightforward. The letter should have the same ease as a personal conversation. Although you must write whatever your boss dictates, many times while typing you can ease the language a bit to improve its impression on the reader; it’s possible to do this with just a word or two more or less that won’t call attention to any change. THE BUSINESS LETTER- CONTENTS Of course, you should always have your boss approve your revisions. It’s your responsibility to see that the letter going forth is creditable in every way to your employer’s interests. The length of the letter should be in accordance with its importance. If the letter is too short, it may have a curt tone and may seem to slight the recipient. If the letter is too long, the recipient’s attention may wander after the first page, and he or she may not read the letter in its entirety. In order to get started using a word processor, you must first create a fresh blank document. Some word processors require the user to create a new document and to name it right away. However, most allow you to wait until you save the document for the first time before assigning it a name. THE BUSINESS LETTER- CLOSING THE LETTER- COMPLIMENTARY CLOSE When the salutation has been “Dear Sir” or “My Dear Sir,” no personal connection exists between the writer and the recipient. Thus, the complimentary closing can be “Yours truly” or “Very truly yours.” “Sincerely” or “Sincerely yours” is appropriate when there is an established personal as well as a business relationship, but it is used only in letters to individuals, never to a company. “Respectfully yours” appears only on letters addressed to a person of acknowledged authority or in letters of great formality. Avoid the use of such complimentary closes as “Yours for lower prices” or “I remain” and other hanging phrases. In addition, “Cordially yours” is not suitable in a business letter. It is often used but this is incorrect since the phrase is too familiar for business. Avoid it. THE BUSINESS LETTER- CLOSING THE LETTER- THE SIGNATURE If in the body of the letter the writer has referred to we, us, or ours, the company—and not an individual in the company—is writing the letter. Consequently, the signature would then consist of the typed name of the company under the complimentary close, the space for the writer’s signature, and the typed name of the writer with his or her title. The whole signature is typed in block form beginning under the first letter of the complimentary close. In some blocked paragraph letters, the complimentary close begins at the left margin; then the signature also begins at the left margin. Very truly yours, GRAM’S QUILT COMPANY Evelyn Wauson, President THE BUSINESS LETTER- A LAST LOOK Before you consider the letter finished, decide if it looks like a picture on the page; that is, have you centered the whole thing? Ask yourself: If you received this letter, would you be favorably impressed? Then check your grammar, spelling, and punctuation again. A business letter should be folded neatly and precisely. The side edges must match, the typing inside the folds must seem to be protected, and only the fewest folds for the perfect fit into the envelope must be used. Upon taking the letter from the envelope, the recipient should be able to begin reading the letter immediately and should find it attractive. Remember that this is the reader’s first impression of your organization. COMMUNICATION SKILLS Good communications skills are critical to your success in business. You have to be able to communicate your ideas as well as respond to ideas from others. You have to be able to respond to questions, handle conflict, and listen. Communication starts when two or more people need to exchange information. Perhaps one of your co-workers wants to ask you a question. Perhaps you want to ask your boss something. Perhaps you want someone to do something for you. Each of these situations involves communication. Talking is not the same thing as communication. Communication is more complicated: it often involves listening and speaking skillfully as you interact with people who are fearful, angry, or frustrated. Miscommunication occurs when we fail to communicate clearly. Many times it is the cause of the conflict in the first place. COMMUNICATION SKILLS- LISTENING Only about 25 percent of listeners grasp the ideas being communicated. To be a more effective listener, mentally summarize what a speaker is saying. Listen between the lines to the tone of the person’s voice. Weigh any evidence the person provides in stating his or her position. As you listen, think about what’s in the message for you. How can you benefit from what the speaker is saying? Fight distractions and concentrate on the person and the message. Avoid judging a speaker until he or she has finished offering all the evidence that supports his or her position. Don’t get distracted by a speaker’s poor communications habits. Skip over the delivery errors and focus on the message. Look for central ideas that are the main point of the conversation. Try to keep eye contact with the speaker and help the speaker along by showing an active body posture. Good listeners listen with their faces as well as their ears. To help remember what was said, take notes during the talk or immediately after the speaker has finished. OFFICE MANAGEMENT AND SUPERVISION As your career evolves over time, it may naturally lead to a role as an office manager or supervisor. In a small office, you may run the overall operations of the office while your boss focuses on business relationships. You may be responsible for interviewing new employees and filtering out the best for your boss to meet in follow-up interviews. THE ROLE OF THE OFFICE MANAGER Office managers often hold one of two jobs in a company. They may supervise people, or they may be involved in getting a product or service out the door in order to generate revenue for the business. In a small business, you are likely to be involved in both. In a small business, the office manager may also provide the services of human resources. You may be responsible for coordinating employee benefits, creating personnel polices, furnishing training and development, conducting performance appraisals, and providing career development. You may also have to handle personnel and performance problems. THE ROLE OF THE OFFICE MANAGER Regardless of whether you are running the office in a small business or supervising a department in a large business, the supervisor is usually responsible for making sure the employees follow the organization’s policies and procedures for things like vacation time, sick time, leaves, and overtime. You may also have responsibilities of hiring, firing, and promotions. Supervisors must review the career needs of the employees and the staffing needs of the organization. Supervisors are often the first to recognize the need for a new position, and they may open a new role by getting authorization from management. This likely requires communication in order to justify the new role THE ROLE OF THE OFFICE MANAGER The supervisor could then be involved in advertising for job candidates, reviewing resumés, and conducting interviews. You may recommend candidates for a job, then handle all the new hire paperwork if the candidate is hired, including benefits, payroll, and tax forms. Finally, your job may involve making sure the new employee has the necessary workspace, office equipment, and supplies. A supervisor likely makes sure that new employees get an orientation about the business, including the personnel polices, facilities, and work schedule. You may develop a training plan with the employees to make sure they have the skills needed for the job. THE ROLE OF THE OFFICE MANAGER At various times throughout the year, you may provide ongoing guidance in the form of coaching and counseling. The goal here is to help the employees take responsibility for their own development but to assist them when they need company approval to take classes or take time away from work for training. Employee performance management may be a responsibility for an office manager or supervisor. The supervisor maintains job descriptions with responsibilities and qualifications for each position. The supervisor sets the performance standards for each job role and ensures that employees have appropriate and realistic goals. Throughout the year, they give the employees feedback on their performance. Performance reviews are then conducted throughout the year to assess how the employees have performed and what they can do to make improvement. THE ROLE OF THE OFFICE MANAGER A good supervisor is also a good coach. Coaching involves working with employees to create realistic goals, action plans, and time lines. The supervisor provides ongoing guidance as the employees work toward their goals. There are five aspects of goal setting that can best be remembered by using the acronym SMART: 1. S—Specific 2. M—Measurable 3. A—Attainable 4. R—Realistic 5. T—Timely THE ROLE OF THE OFFICE MANAGER A good coach also acts like a mentor to the employee. Since a supervisor likely understands the organization better than the employee, the supervisor can serve as a mentor offering advice about the job and career. The employee can look to the supervisor as a role model. Since the supervisor is the first person to share news about new policies and programs, the supervisor must be an advocate for the organization. Employees get confused and fearful whenever change is involved; however, in the rapidly changing business world, change is evitable. The supervisor must be a supporter of the organization’s change initiatives to help reduce the anxiety. You must be authentic in how your present your feelings about new programs and organization change, yet tactful in how you present it. THE ROLE OF THE OFFICE MANAGER At the same time, a supervisor must also be an advocate for employees and represent employee requests to management. For example, if an employee deserves a promotion, the supervisor must often justify the reason to management. It’s not unusual for a supervisor to be seen by employees as being one of them and a part of management at the same time. It’s a unique combination that has both pluses and negatives. BUILDING TRUST WITH YOUR TEAM Trust is important to the relationship between a supervisor and an employee. Teams that trust each other are more productive and have fewer personnel issues. With trust, you learn to depend on each other. There’s really no substitute for trust; your team either has it or it doesn’t. Trusting the people on your team means that your employees are willing to take your word for it when you tell them they need to do something they don’t really want to do. Trust means you’re willing to be influenced. Trust elevates performance because team members are willing to do things without debate. BUILDING TRUST WITH YOUR TEAM Some people are more likely to trust than others. It depends on their history of experience. It also depends on their character in general. If they’ve learned not to trust people in the past, or they can’t even trust themselves, then they will not trust you either. Key aspects of trust include the following: Ability—Has knowledge skills and competencies, so that the person performs in a way that meets your expectations Integrity—Maintains accepted behavior based on past actions, credibility of communications, and fairness Benevolence—Is concerned about the welfare of others; would like to advance others or not impede them Open communication—Shares control and delegates decisions CONFLICT MANAGEMENT Another aspect of being an office manager or supervisor is conflict management. Conflict occurs when two or more values, perspectives, or opinions are opposite in nature. You may experience personal conflict when you don’t live up to your own values. You experience conflict with someone else when your values or points of view are threatened. You may experience conflict because of fear of the unknown or a lack of fulfillment. Conflict is inevitable and is a natural phase in the team- building process. When you have a diversity of ideas, it often leads to contradictory opinions. CONFLICT MANAGEMENT Conflict often helps raise important issues to the forefront. It causes us to work on the most important issues and motivates people to participate in solving problems. Conflict management helps people learn to recognize differences in opinion and learn from those differences. Therefore, conflict isn’t the problem. The problem is when conflict is managed poorly. When this happens, conflict hampers productivity, lowers employee morale, mushrooms into larger conflicts, and causes people to react inappropriately. CONFLICT MANAGEMENT A supervisor can cause workplace conflict by communicating poorly with employees. If employees are constantly surprised by new programs and policies without having their supervisor explain the situation, the employees don’t understand the reasons for the decisions and feel left out of the process and disrespected. As a result, people will resort to getting information from the rumor-mill. Conflict can be caused by poor leadership, when a manager or supervisor passes the buck rather than dealing with issues head on. If decisions are inconsistent, uniformed, or completely missing, conflict is evitable. Workplace conflict can also occur when there are not enough resources to go around or there is a disagreement about who does what. Conflict can occur because of personal chemistry between co-workers or between managers and employees. Strong personalities may clash. Opposite opinions may collide. MINIMIZING CONFLICTS There are several things you can do to minimize conflict at work. Start by reviewing the job descriptions of your team. Set up meetings with your employees and discuss the job descriptions together. Are they still accurate? Do they need to be revised? Make sure that the job roles for your team don’t conflict with one another. Take time to build relationships with each of your employees. Meet with them one-on- one at least once a month. Talk about accomplishments and any issues. You should also hold regular management meetings with your entire team to discuss initiatives and the status of major projects. MINIMIZING CONFLICTS Ask your team to provide regular status reports and include accomplishments, current issues, needs from management, and plans for the upcoming period. You can minimize conflict by training your team on conflict management, delegation skills, and interpersonal communications. Document the procedures and processes in your department so employees have job aids that describe how to perform routine tasks. Have the employees write the procedures when possible. Distribute the procedures to your team and train the team, so that team members can back each other up for business continuity purposes. DIFFICULT PEOPLE One unpleasant part of being an office manager or supervisor is that from time to time you have to work with difficult people. Difficult people are unhappy people. They are working for the negative side of their personality. They don’t intentionally wake up each morning and decide to be difficult. They are often unaware of themselves and how their attitude affects others. They don’t realize how their attitude is harmful to the team and to their own careers. As a supervisor, you are constantly faced with situations where people challenge your decisions and make it difficult to get things done. It’s important to be able to understand other people’s viewpoints and why they act a certain way. DIFFICULT PEOPLE One well-recognized trait, especially with technical people, is the know-it-all. This trait is often seen with computer programmers, software developers, engineers, doctors, and attorneys. You might ask a know-it-all a simple question and get the response, “How dare you question me.” Or, you might make a suggestion for how to do a task and get a multitude of reasons why your idea won’t work. Eventually, you give up trying to work with the know-it-all. This trait is a manifestation of arrogance. People act arrogantly to avoid feeling vulnerable or insecure. They are afraid of being seen as unworthy or incompetent, so they throw up a defensive shield of arrogance. The result of this behavior is that people refuse to work with them, no one believes what they say, people don’t think they really know what they’re doing, and they lose credibility and respect. DIFFICULT PEOPLE Another common trait of difficult people is the my-way-or-the-highway attitude. This trait seems prevalent in management positions. No matter what anyone else thinks, these people force their ideas on everyone. There is no open discussion about issues. Things must be done the way these people want or else. As an example, if you were in a meeting with this type of person and offered a suggestion, the my-way-or-the- highway person would make it clear your suggestions were not wanted. Eventually, no one wants to contribute, and the added value that comes from having a diversity of ideas is lost. This trait is an aspect of dominance. Working with this type of person is like living under a dictatorship. When you combine dominance with power, this person becomes king of the planet. The positive side of dominance is leadership. DIFFICULT PEOPLE When such people focus on the positive side of their personality, they can be effective and charming. But if these people come under stress, they quickly jump to the dark side. The result of becoming domineering is that the team refuses to interact with these individuals. People won’t tell them the truth or provide them with enough information that might help them make better decisions. People try to ignore the domineering characters and avoid implementing their ideas. HOW TO HANDLE DIFFICULT PEOPLE When you are working with people who go into attack mode or become extremely defensive, don’t try to argue with them. These people are very insecure and the more you push, the worse it gets. Since these people are probably under stress, wait until another time to pursue the discussion. If they are always this way, the only alternative is to find someone else with whom to work. Keep your self-confidence and don’t allow yourself to be attacked verbally. If your boss is one of these difficult people, it’s probably time to find another job. HOW TO HANDLE DIFFICULT PEOPLE When supervising difficult people, try to help them see how their behavior is damaging their career. Set goals that help them learn to work better with others, and monitor their behavior closely to see if it improves. If their attitude doesn’t improve, you’ll have to terminate their employment. If you find that you are becoming a difficult person yourself, learn to recognize the signs. Try not to react so quickly, and realize that you are not being attacked personally. Learn to listen when someone else asks a question or makes a suggestion. Repeat what someone has said to confirm that you understand. Ask the person to restate the question or comment if you are still unclear about what was intended. Take some time before you respond. This helps reduce the stress, so you can make a decision without feeling under pressure. HOW TO HANDLE DIFFICULT PEOPLE Realize that other people have good ideas that are just as valid as your own. Look for courses or workshops that teach listening skills or team building. Look for someone in the organization who can help you work on the situation. Ask him or her to let you know when you’re being a jerk, to call your attention to your behavior. You have to realize that this learned behavior may take years to overcome, but don’t give up on yourself. HOW TO HANDLE DIFFICULT PEOPLE As you prepare to work with difficult people on the job, you should do the following: Confront difficult people face-to-face and by yourself. Write down the issue that needs to be handled and your goal for the outcome of your conversation. Write down a list of points you need to make to support your goal. Write down the objections or reactions the other person may have to your view. Organize your notes and gather supportive documents and evidence. HOW TO HANDLE DIFFICULT PEOPLE Arrange a meeting in a private place where you will not be disturbed. Hold the meeting and share your view. Stay on target by describing your points. Listen to the other person’s side. Communicate and be persistent. HOW TO HANDLE DIFFICULT PEOPLE The more frequently you confront and deal directly with difficult people, the easier it becomes. The amount of time it takes to prepare for these types of meetings will decrease. The result is that you will become stronger and tougher. When you confront and handle these types of situations, people will respect you for your courage and control. Taking positive action in the face of fear is an important trait shared by successful people.