 Being around negative people at work is energy sapping, demoralising and frankly makes life at work a lot more difficult. The obvious step is to spend as little time around those people as possible. If you have to work with them because you are a colleague and you manage them or you need to work on a project with them then learning how to manage negative people at work becomes really useful and makes your life at work better. So I'll be sharing nine different ways to manage negative colleagues at work. Try out as many of them as suits your situation and see what ones work best for you. The last three showing on this list are particularly for managers and entrepreneurs as you'll be in a position to put these into action. My name is Jess Coles and I've had a 25-year management career in corporates and household names through to SMEs. I've had to learn how to deal with negative people at work as a colleague and as a manager. And if you're new to this channel enhance.training shares business and people management expertise to help you improve your performance and that of your team and business. And if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and subscribe. The first way to deal with negative people at work is to control how you react. This is easy to say and hard to do. The simple fact is you can't control the others behaviour even if it is your business. You can control your own reactions to their behaviour no matter how hard you might find this. Keep a positive mental approach to the negative person. Look for the good in what they are complaining about or talking negatively about. For instance if they're detailing everything that is wrong with a new process which of the negative points they bring up is worth considering to try and improve the process and which can be discarded as general moaning. Control how you react to their negative behaviour. It is so easy to allow their negativity to start rubbing off on you and then finding that you are being more negative. Don't let this happen. Not allow your reaction to become an encouragement for more negative behaviour from negative people at work. The second way to handle negative people at work is to force them to talk positive. The best way I have found to do this is to ask questions in a way that forces negative people at work to think positively and answer positively. For example the negative person at work is pointing out everything wrong with say a new expenses system. You might ask well what are the positive benefits of having this new system? How much time might it save everyone with the credit card feeds it has which will save you having to type everything out? Or it might be how much time is the new system going to save Paul who used to have to type into the finance system all the paper expense forms? You get the idea. The questions you ask need to be framed to force the negative people to think about and talk about the upsides, the benefits and the positives. You'll probably find quite often that the negative people at work will twig what you're trying to do and respond something like firstly I don't know or it might be why don't you tell me or that's nothing compared to these problems and then start talking about all the negatives again. Don't be put off by this approach calmly ask the positive question again you know something like oh come on humor me tell me what you think all the upsides are and you can use a positive or even a playful tone of voice and body language. The third way to manage negative people at work is don't get sucked in it is very easy to get sucked into negative conversations I mean just picture the negative person complaining about a person or something that has happened and then asking you to comment or agree with what they have said it is so easy to bow to social pressure and agree or make a confirming negative statement if there is a group of colleagues who are all complained together then the social pressure to agree with them goes up resist the pressure to join in and start complaining or talking negatively you joining in the negative talk is what the negative person wants to achieve so just slightly decline and if you start talking negatively this time then it'll be so much harder to resist the next time I'm sure you can imagine where this could go ask a question to turn the conversation to a positive aspect or one of the other suggestions here to sidestep the negative talk don't allow yourself to be sucked into the negative conversations at work the fourth way to manage negative people at work is to work on a positive people counterbalance so what does this mean well positive people build the energy of others and are enjoyable to be around for this reason lift your own mood and mindset by spending as much time as possible with positive people in the team and the company I know this seems obvious advice yet making the effort to build friendships to fit in that lunch or coffee when you are busy and under pressure is not as easy also take the time to think positively a really good exercise is at the end of each day write down three or more positive things that you have achieved in the day in a notebook writing these down is powerful it forces you to think positively even more so as each day creates a list and then you can go back and look on the week and see all the good things that you have done and experienced if you are positive and behave positively around colleagues you will attract to you positive people and bring out other people's positive thinking and behavior the more people that are positive in the workplace the harder it is for negative people at work to remain negative the fifth way to deal with the negative people at work is to praise positive behavior everyone likes to be told they have done good work everyone likes to be complimented it is human nature positive reinforcement really does work handle negative for people at work by looking out for any positive comments suggestions for improvement positive anything in fact and praise it by praising good behavior and attitude it will encourage the negative people at work to be more positive as they will get praised for it as a word of warning don't praise negative people at work more than the positive people at work this will send the wrong message to the positive people who absolutely want to keep on side the sixth way to manage negative people at work is to find the positive in the negativity listen within reason to what the negative people at work are saying some will be having a general moan and listening to the complaining will often but not always provide little of much value others are glass half empty people always looking for what can go wrong the risks and so on listening to these negative people can help identify problems or risks that you had not considered or thought about when you know about issues and problems and risks you can do something positive about them so work out what type of negative person you are dealing with and whether the negative talk it will be useful to you the team and the business I remain constantly impressed by the insights and positive actions you can get from listening to those complaining find the positive in the negativity the seventh way to handle negative people at work is to set behaviour expectations if you manage a team with one or more negative people on the team set out your expectations for their behaviour you know some examples might include firstly no complaining without purpose or benefit or it could be providing constructive feedback rather than only negative feedback or it could be providing solutions as well as the problems more on this in a sec or it could be raising concerns in private rather than public or it could be framing concerns raised in a more positive way it is important as a manager that you listen to concerns and issues and take action on them if you don't listen or take any action consistently your team will stop raising these issues and you and the team will be a lot worse off against this you are balancing the morale and how the team operates and feels to work in too much negative griping moaning and complaining will make the team an unpleasant place to work and you will lose the better staff with people that always look for the problems issues and challenges coach them in how to raise their concerns without impacting the morale of the team setting expectations is setting out the rules that you want the team to follow just make sure you carefully stick to the expectations you set out to the eighth way to manage negative people at work is to demand a solutions focus demanding or requesting that a negative person provides a solution along with a problem can turn a person who is constantly bringing up the problems and issues into a source and owner of the solutions for those problems this gets them thinking positively and helps you and the team solve the problems that they are so good at spotting for those that just like to complain requiring them to provide a solution to problems and issues stops the general complaining as they know that you'll be asking them what they are going to do about the situation don't let the negative person's silence or refusal to provide solutions put you off keep asking them for a solution and be careful don't provide any yourself this will keep the focus on them and how they bring up problems plus you have the groundwork for performance management if they don't provide any solutions at any point ask for solutions and behave in a way that supports this request the ninth way to deal with negative people at work is to remove negative people as a manager or leader you i hope want to ensure that the team is happy and productive this is in everyone's interests especially yours negative people at work can make a big negative impact on both consider the benefits negative people at work bring and compare to the downsides consider on an individual level and more importantly on a team level if the upsides are not well ahead of the downsides then removing the negative people from the team is an option that is worth serious thought if the downsides are ahead of the upsides then i think removing them becomes a no-brainer of course be fair give them the opportunity and help to allow them to improve their behavior and change their negative impact on the team if they are unwilling or unable to change for the better of the team then remove them in summary there you have nine ways to manage negative people at work you should be able to put most or all of these into practice depending on your position at work don't let negative people at work ruin the team atmosphere and make it a less enjoyable place to work please leave any questions you have in the comment section below and i'll try and give you specific advice for your situation thanks very much for watching and i look forward to speaking to you again soon