**Dealing with Hostility - Perth**

# Handling Hostility Perth: Course Outline Details

By David Smith, Leadership Coach

## Course Overview

Do you ever have a tense customer encounter and freeze with indecision about what to do next? Got a bad case of the workday blues?

Every day at businesses right across Perth, professionals are put to the test. From the customer who's been transferred six times and is about to blow, to the colleague who's turned team meetings into battlefields, we've all come to accept that hostile encounters are part of modern Business life.

This is indeed a game changing professional development training opportunity for one of the toughest areas in workplace communication dealing with aggressive and hostile behaviour, all the while keeping your cool, protecting yourself, and getting the best possible results. Based on true life examples from businesses in Perth, this course transforms frightening encounters into controllable professional talks.

The foundation of this program is one key realisation: managing hostility is not about having thick skin or being a naturally chill person, it's about understanding human psychology, knowing certain techniques, and knowing when exactly to use them the right way. The problem with aggression is that it comes from feeling powerless, from not being listened to or respected. This is the foundation upon which we learn to use effective de-escalation methods.

## Curriculum Based Learning Outcomes

Intended Audience: This course is aimed at professionals, 18 years and older

Upon successful conclusion of the course the students will have the basic fundamentals of:

### Foundation Knowledge

Examine the psychological reasons behind aggressive behaviour in the workplace

Know the warning signals of the escalation process before the snowball rolls too fast

Differentiate between different types of aggression and possible responses

Recognise the link between feeling powerless and aggressive responses

### Practical Application Skills

Deploy active listening strategies for extremely high stress confrontational situations

Utilise de escalating words that decrease hostility, but do not blur professional limits

Practice your body language and positional strategy in keeping with both safety and approachability

Create safe personal and organisational 'space' for personal and organisational best interests

### Professional Development

Carry out full documentation process to protect staff and Company liability

Cultivate individualised resiliency tools to rebound emotionally after challenging experiences

Develop definitive action plans on when to support issues on your own versus escalating to management or security

Make conflict resolution part of the workplace conversation

## What You Will Learn

### The Psychology of Workplace Aggression

If you know why people go negative in a professional setting, it moves you from being reactive and defensive to strategic and responsive. You will also learn to peel away that superficial layer of anger to find the real problem, and to change your mindset from a victim mindset to that of a problem solving professional.

### Advanced De escalation Techniques

Learn the actual speech patterns and strategies that calm angry people while still maintaining your stance and avoid being manipulated. Key into the difference between acknowledgment and agreement, and hear how some linguistic approaches can help lead conversations to closure.

### Strategic Physical Presence

Discover how using non verbals, or body language and voice tone and physical positioning can either fuel or cool a conversation. Work on the professional appearance but remain vigilant of self safety through subliminal presentation and body language.

### Professional Boundary Management

Learn how to set emotional boundaries in dealing with difficult people while still respecting each other's dignity. Know when we to be flexing and when we really need to be firm boundaries.

### Personal Resilience and Self Care

Developing healthy habits to preserve your mental health and emotional wellness while regularly interacting with challenging personalities. Create systems to process difficult social encounters, and maintain your own balance.

### Documentation and Legal Protection

Learn best practices for recording incidents so you and your Company are protected against possible legal situations and maintain professionalism during the conversation.

### Perth Specific Scenario Practice

Fill out a few scenarios of workplace interactions you find yourself in, for example: customer challenging Company rules, colleague undermining your team, offshore partner trying to intimidate.

## Course Format and Delivery

This is an instructor led workshop where theory is coupled with hands on interaction. Participants participate in facilitated conversations, experiential skill building activities, and scenarios to increase comfort through practice and feedback.

Australian business cases support context understanding for local practitioners, and group work fosters participant learning from other's experience and perspective. The course applies a hands on approach with quick skills transfer from classroom to lab.

## Concluding Remarks

Hostile Behaviour is pervasive and one of the most visible yet least well managed in the professional workplace. This course fills that void, with actual psychologist tested tools that can be applied right away.

Graduates go with a full toolset of tactics to handle aggressive encounters from earliest contact through aftermath, and beyond. Above all, they feel confident being able to approach these exchange and difficult exchanges in a professional manner which allows them to protect their own health interests and the interests of the Organisation.

The lessons are useful not only in the workplace, but also for dealing with the most difficult people and situations in life. The payoff is less stress, more confidence, greater career success, turning 'problems' that others have into opportunities for positive action.