Navigating Politics as a Senior Leader: Coping with Aggressive Behaviors

People can behave poorly either in private or in public. This ranges from temper tantrums to intimidation and bullying. Use this approach to diffuse aggressive behaviors.

Every organization suffers from some level of political intrigue. Whether it’s hoarding of resources, manipulative tactics, or passive aggressive behavior office politics distract your organization from getting things done. It also makes time at the office stressful and discouraging. Ignoring these dynamics can create risk for you, but you can take a productive approach to dealing with common political issues.

Coping with Aggressive Behaviors

People can behave poorly either in private or in public. This ranges from temper tantrums to intimidation and bullying. These behaviors are designed to silence the target of their anger and scare others into giving them what they want.

To diffuse this aggressive approach, provide feedback and align with other senior stakeholders who can help diffuse the behavior. When you provide the feedback, ask for confidentiality. Provide feedback from meetings where multiple people were in the room so that feedback can’t be directly attributed to you. This person might want to retaliate. Share this feedback with a trusted executive or Human Resources. If the situation is happening with a very senior executive, most companies have an ethics line you can call. That information typically goes straight to the Board of Directors.

When you provide your feedback, be fact-based. Leave the emotion out of it. When you provide feedback, it might sound something like, “In this meeting this person said the following words.” Leave out the part about the way it made you feel. By providing fact-based feedback, you’re giving them something that they can act on. If the situation is happening in private and no one else is around, consider hitting the pause button when the person gets aggressive. End the meeting when they explode.

I worked with one CEO who would blow up quite frequently. When he did, it was usually because the team hadn’t thought of something. There was usually swearing involved. When it happened, we took an approach of saying, “You know what, we hadn’t considered that. You’re right, it’s something we need to think about. Let us look into it and get back to you.” The meeting was over. It was not going to be productive to continue the conversation.

I coach one chief operating officer who deals with a CEO who can be pretty volatile. When she deals with him and he explodes, she’s now taken an approach of saying, “You know what, I’m not having this conversation right now while you’re yelling at me. It’s not productive. I’m not going to talk to you when you’re this upset. So let’s stop the meeting now. We’ll go recollect ourselves. And we’ll get back together when we’ve calmed down.” That allows for productive issue resolution.

The bullying and aggressive behavior won’t stop until the individual gets clear feedback that the behavior is unacceptable. When you provide the feedback, be fact-based. And when the explosions happen in a one-on-one environment, it’s okay to hit the pause button and come back later.

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