How do you deal with someone who is passive aggressive?

Our reader poll today asks: How do you deal with someone who is passive aggressive?

• I ignore it and focus on the work 40.26%
• I call them out on it and work toward productive resolution 39.62%
• I get passive aggressive myself in retaliation 11.36%
• I get directly aggressive to counter the behavior 8.76%

Pushing Back on Passive Aggression. 60% of you push back in some way on passive aggressive behavior. Whether it’s directly confronting the person or pursuing your own campaign of passive aggression, their behavior gets a response from you. Consider your approach to your response. Passive aggression met with passive aggression can simply spiral into a silent war with no resolution. Directly aggressive behavior can cause a directly aggressive response or even stronger passive aggressive behavior. There’s a chance the person demonstrating the behavior doesn’t even realize how their behavior is affecting you or others. Consider a direct response that provides actionable feedback with offers of how the issue can be resolved. Being the bigger person is hard and frustrating sometimes but it can prevent future situations from arising.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.