Monday, November 10, 2014

How do You Deal with somebody who is Disruptive?

It’s perhaps every leader’s nightmare – an associate or somebody in the team who is proving to be disruptive in one way or another.

In fact, this can even occasionally be encountered on things such as training and development courses.




Disruption can come in many shapes and forms. In some cases it may appear to be directed at attempting to undermine the leader or presenter by constantly suggesting, with little justification, that he or she is mistaken. In other instances it might be an intentional disconnecting from the session or enterprise and a refusal to play a contributory and participatory role in it.  

Perhaps the first thing to try and do is to ascertain the probable motivations behind the disruption. That can be far from easy but if the person is involved in something that is outside their normal routine, are they there because they wish to be or because someone else has told them they must? If it’s the latter, that can cause resentment.

In other situations the motivation may simply be a misguided sense of intellectual challenge.  That often manifests itself in attempts to ask consistently difficult and pointed questions of the leader. This can often be a symptom that the individual concerned feels frustrated with their role in life or in the specific activity underway.

Of course, no indigenous leadership program can provide a single answer as to how to deal with this. Each individual situation will have its own unique parameters that need to be assessed.

The best thing to do is to try to get the person to engage productively in the session and confrontation or recrimination should be avoided at all costs.  Public squabbling usually serves no purpose other than to make others feel uncomfortable.

If the position cannot be handled subtly within the team or session, it may be necessary to take the individual quietly and discreetly to one side during the coffee break and have a heart-to-heart with them to ascertain quite what’s going on and what can be done about it.

Under no circumstances should the problem simply be ignored though, as a poor attitude and team spirit can become infectious if it is not dealt with quickly and effectively.

For, more related articles, kindly visit Youth Leadership Development Website.

0 comments:

Post a Comment