When someone is openly hostile and unprofessional, how do you deal with it?

Our reader poll today asks: When someone is openly hostile and unprofessional, how do you deal with it?

• I get hostile back. Fight fire with fire. – 7%
• I tell them they’re acting inappropriately and to stop. – 53%
• I ignore it and continue acting professionally. – 35%
• I avoid the conflict and ask someone to help mediate. – 6%

Tacitly Approving Bad Behavior. While 60% of you are direct with someone who is openly hostile that their behavior is unacceptable, 40% of you let the behavior slide by ignoring it or avoiding it. While this approach can help tensions subside in the short term, it signals to the person misbehaving that their conduct is acceptable since there are no consequences for the behavior. If someone is acting in a manner inconsistent with expected behaviors, it’s best to provide feedback to that effect – either in the moment or shortly thereafter. Ignoring bad behavior will only get you more of it in the future.

– 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.