How Do You Work with a Complicated Person?
Ryan Leak, CEO of The Ryan Leak Group, based in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, has some suggestions for handling those people. The motivational speaker and author of Chasing Failure: How Falling Short Sets You Up for Success?(Thomas Nelson, 2022) has a new book, How to Work with Complicated People, (Simon & Schuster, 2024)?which will be out in October.?
Leak’s organization conducted a survey of 1,000 workers in the U.S. ?on how to work with complicated people. His book delves into the findings. Among those findings: 80% of respondents think they work with a complicated person, but 74% believe they’re not themselves complicated.
“Mathematically, we have an issue,” Leak observed.
That’s because oftentimes, we may feel like we have a behind-the-scenes story that validates our own behavior, Leak said, but the person we are butting heads with has “no excuse for their behavior.”
He shared his thoughts ahead of his June 25 presentation at the SHRM Conference & Expo 2024 (SHRM24) in Chicago. Leak promised that his session will be a very fun talk but also a very deep one. It is available to registered in-person and remote attendees.
Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
SHRM Online: You will be speaking on “How to Work with Complicated People” as part of SHRM24’s Changemakers series. How do you define complicated people?
Leak: Complicated is in the eye of the beholder. You could be complicated to someone else but not complicated to me. Part of working with complicated people is coming to the realization that I am complicated to someone else.
Some of the commonalities of complicated people: their personality, work pace, and preferences. They make communication difficult.