How to Defuse Anger and Calm People Down

Strategies for managing destructive emotions at work

Continuing Education Credits: CEU: 0.6 

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Overview

By the end of this seminar, be able to:
  • Understand the nature and effects of anger
  • Recognize and evaluate anger styles
  • Identify others’ hot buttons and anger triggers
  • Minimize distorted thinking that fuels anger
  • Develop strategies and techniques for turning angry situations around
  • Cope with angry people
  • Keep cool by managing and controlling our own anger
  • Express emotions productively
  • Resolve conflicts and anger management
  • Use coping and relaxation techniques
  • Build better relationships at work

Read More

Anger in the office is the enemy of productivity, teamwork and creativity. Sometimes it’s obvious - a white-hot rage with tempers flaming. Other times it’s more subtle - and potentially more damaging. That’s when defensiveness, cynicism and negativity creep into the workplace and take over. Before long, department morale plummets, enthusiasm is dampened and teamwork breaks down.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

There are specific steps you can take and proven strategies you can follow to turn things around quickly. Find out how to recognize the early signs of anger - in yourself and others - and redirect the energy wasted on it to achieve positive outcomes such as improved teamwork, increased enthusiasm and heightened creativity throughout the workplace.

Four Ways Managers and Supervisors Benefit:
  1. You’ll recognize potential problem areas before they erupt into a crises
  2. You’ll know how to help your team channel the energy of anger into positive change and productivity
  3. You’ll become a better communicator and listener, which will enhance your value to the organization and boost your career
  4. You’ll decrease absenteeism and turnover by working to create a pleasant, goal-focused environment that’s inviting to employees

Agenda

Learn to Defuse Anger Before It Erupts

  • Three keys to empathy - understand why others are troubled
  • Listening skills that can turn around a bad situation in the office
  • How and when to use silence as a positive motivator
  • Tips to help you sidestep emotions and focus on positive change
  • Techniques that allow others to save face and avoid embarrassment
  • Three main approaches to anger and the outcomes of each
  • How to respond when anger is used as a manipulator
  • The key to keeping your cool in every situation

Channel Anger Into Positive Growth

  • Techniques to help you soothe irate individuals
  • The things you must do if hostilities get out of hand
  • How to recognize anger triggers
  • Cognitive restructuring - the power of changing the way you think
  • When to be a referee; when to be a coach
  • Steps to handling people who have a low tolerance for frustration
  • How to identify different types of anger buildup
  • Why your own behavior may worsen conflict, and what to do about it
  • Specific questions to ask in the problem-solving process

Calm Stress and Increase Productivity

  • Techniques that help employees face the issues really causing their stress
  • Stress-reduction techniques you - and your staff can use anywhere
  • Questions that help an angry person think more logically about the situation
  • The best way to transform a “hot thought” into a positive motivator
  • How self-talk fans the fires of a bad temper
  • Ways to channel anger into progress
  • How to get staff members to stick with difficult challenges when resolution doesn’t come quickly
  • The phases of anger, how judgment is affected in each, and how you should tailor your responses at each phase
  • How to identify the subtle signs of hidden anger

Finish the Issue Without Resentment and With a Positive Spin

  • Four ways to rebuild a team damaged by anger
  • Mistakes that escalate anger and create problems down the road
  • Strategies for recognizing potential areas of conflict and sidestepping them
  • The secret of getting diverse individuals to work together as a productive group
  • A process for turning conflict into a positive growth experience
  • How to replace angry thoughts with balanced,healthy thoughts
  • Policies that reduce conflict and defuse anger