32 Most Difficult Personalities to Work With

Everybody is difficult to deal with for somebody, even you. Patrick Bet-David has a list of all the difficult personalities you might encounter in the business world. He is not talking about self-pity, entitlement, and victimhood. These personalities encompass both good and bad versions of difficult. The important thing to remember is not to look at this list and identify who goes with each personality, you need to look at yourself and ask, “What do I need to change about my personality?”

Difficult Personalities to Work With

1. Attitude

   1. Someone who has a pessimistic negative attitude that’s always complaining and is a downer to be around.

2. Passive

   1. These people don’t give their opinions when asked, they don’t rise to the challenge when it is presented to them, and they don’t bring any value because they are passive. If you are sitting in a meeting and you don’t voice your opinion, nobody sees you as a potential leader.

3. Too Emotional

   1. Falling apart when challenges and issues arise puts you at a detriment because the other people around you are afraid to give you real council. So they don’t, making the situation worse. You never grow and hear real feedback because people don’t want to be honest with you.

4. Outdo-er

   1. You know the person that has to always one-up everybody, even little things. They always must be one better. It may be annoying but the positive side to it is that they are competitive. If you put that person in the right role where that competitive edge can be used as a strength, they are going to excel.

5. Aggressive

   1. A person who comes in and takes charge of the situation. The downside of this is that it can create an environment where they are the only opinion being heard. You need to strike a balance.

6. Too Salesy

   1. Everything in life is sales, but to preach it 24/7 can make you difficult to work with. It can help in a sales department but outside of that, if you are trying to build a business, being too salesy can repel great talent from joining your business.

7. Fake

   1. Fake people will look you in the eye, tell you all you want to hear, and then an hour later turn around and it’s a completely different tune. They time their reactions to get you in the best mood, so they can get whatever they need from you. It is very difficult to work with fake people because you never know who is going to show up.

8. Jokester

   1. Joking all the time erodes any credibility you have. If you want to be taken seriously, you must treat your business seriously. Everything is not a joke, save the jokes for the appropriate time.

9. Overpowering Sexism

   1. If you are trying to build a business with people from all walks of life, you can’t favor one sex over the other. If you are trying to build say, for instance, a woman lead company, then it makes sense to attract only women. What you don’t want to do is create an uncomfortable workplace because of someone’s sex.

10. Condescending

    1. Condescending a lot of times comes from a competitive place. If you harness that competitive nature and funnel it into a positive direction to grow your business, it can be good. However, a lot of times condescension only drives people, talent, and opinions away who don’t want to deal with that negativity.

11. Know-It-All

    1. They are completely uncoachable, they know everything and don’t want to hear any outside voice. They will remind you how great they are and how much better they think they are. Being this level of disagreeable is only positive if you know exactly what you want. If you are lazy and uncoachable, you are not going to last long in business.

12. Uncommitted

    1. Uncommitted people are unable to commit in all aspects of their lives, not just business. They always find a way out and do not commit themselves out of fear, laziness, or a whole bunch of other reasons. These people try and take advantage of people who pour a lot of time and effort into them because they see that as you are needing them. Remain neutral with them, so they understand they need to break out and commit to something.

13. Rejecter

    1. These people enjoy rejecting everything no matter what the idea or opportunity is. It is good to stay discerning, but you can’t close yourself off. You can use these people as a devil’s advocate once you have formulated, fleshed out ideas. They should not be apart of creating the ideas, however.

14. Unclear

    1. You can’t work with someone who is unclear, you can’t be in a relationship with someone who is unclear. Clarity is necessary for communication, there is no upside to being unclear.

15. Arrogant

    1. Arrogance is different than a Know-It-All because arrogance creates an aura around the person. Every fiber of their being exudes this idea that they are just better. It makes it really hard to collaborate with these people.

16. Bad Character

    1. Bad character issues include stealing, cheating, lying, basically anything that hurts the entire company and lets everybody down. You cannot compromise character issues within a company. Big companies fall because someone forgave bad character issues.

17. Triangulate

    1. This is someone that will leverage the people around you, to force you into giving up something they want. They will go around you and use your team against you to strike a deal. It creates divisions amongst the people that get used. Don’t deal with triangulators.

18. Liar

    1. Go watch Who Should You Trust in Business to learn more about liars in the business world. Some lies are petty and annoying, but some can really hold your business back or dissolve it.

19. Sore Loser

    1. If you are self-aware and know that you hate losing, most likely you are using your losses to prepare you for the next win. You are learning from every loss. Sore losers wallow in their losses and maybe even prevent themselves from trying again because they don’t want to lose. Some sore losers take their frustration out on other relationships, so the loss doesn’t feel so bad. Keep your head on straight and learn from your losses.

20. True Believer

    1. True believers are steadfast in their convictions and talk about them all the time. The number one thing true believers need to be aware of is how only speaking about their beliefs sounds to other people in the company. It will inspire most people, because of the positive energy it creates, but true believers can bring out the doubters in your team. Make sure that true believers are in inspirational roles to push the company in a positive direction.

21. Selfish

    1. A good selfish person wants to win so bad that they pull up everybody with them. They know the only way to win is with the team, so they push the team forward. The bad type of selfish person doesn’t want to do the work, they want everybody else to do the work to win and take the credit.

22. Unwilling to Improve

    1. If you are not committed to improving, there are safe 9 to 5 jobs out there for you. Being an entrepreneur and working for a company focused on growth, must have people willing to improve. Improvement drives growth.

23. Perfect

    1. Perfect people walk around believing they are holy than thou. They believe that everyone else is beneath them. How are you supposed to work with a team if you believe that everyone on that team is beneath you? Perfect people have no place in business.

24. Small Thinker

    1. Small thinkers are not the ones out there thinking about five, ten years down the road. They only care about next week. To achieve your vision, you need people who have bought into your vision and are big thinkers. Small thinkers might be good for day to day operations but when it comes to reaching new heights they are always going to be held back.

25. Unpleasable

    1. No matter what you do, nothing will ever please them.

26. Fickle

    1. Fickle people change way too often and can’t stay committed to a vision. What they don’t know is, they lose a lot of good people in their lives because everyone else gets tired of keeping up. It is drain on everyone around them to stick with the changing mindsets.

27. Crap Magnet

    1. People who constantly attract crap to themselves. They go out looking for it. Stay away from these people.

28. Self-Inflicted Wounds

    1. There is always something bad happening to them. They don’t keep focused on their long-term goals and they self-sabotage in order to keep themselves down.

29. Too Honest

    1. Being too honest tends to rub people the wrong way. It silences people who are more sensitive because they feel like if they share their opinion, they are going to get brutally honest feedback. Know when to be too honest and know when to pull back.

30. Sensitive

    1. Sensitive people cannot take any criticism without folding under the pressure. This means the only time they improve is based on their own personal experience. They don’t improve from a one-on-one meeting where someone is honest with them. They must go out and experience a failure for improvement to happen. The speed of success is always delayed for sensitive people. Sensitivity can be a good thing because it fosters positivity, but just like honesty, too much can ruin a team.

31. Excuse Maker

    1. You can’t help somebody that is constantly making excuses for issues and failures. They are unwilling to take responsibility for their own actions. To them, it is always something else that did it, not them.

Next Steps: Download the PDF and look back at what relates to you. Then write down how you are going to improve in those areas that relate to you. After that, go to positive, level-headed person in your life and get their constructive criticism about these areas.

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