In every workplace, family, or social group, we all encounter people who seem impossible to work with—those who challenge, frustrate, or even intimidate us. Whether it's a pushy boss, a passive-aggressive colleague, or a stubborn friend, these interactions can drain our energy and disrupt our peace of mind.
In this practical and empowering guide, you will find clear, fast, and effective strategies to help you take control of difficult situations with confidence and tact. Using real-life examples and straightforward language, you will learn how to:
- Understand why difficult people behave the way they do
- Stay calm, focused, and in control during tough conversations
- Use assertiveness, empathy, and boundaries to turn conflicts into cooperation
- Identify your own triggers—and manage your emotional responses
- Build resilience and avoid being manipulated or drawn into drama
The book can become your go-to toolkit for transforming frustration into productivity, tension into teamwork, and stress into success. Whether you're dealing with chronic complainers, control freaks, or outright bullies, you'll discover that you you have more power than you think.

Thank you NetGalley and Kogan Page for this eCopy to review

How to Deal with Difficult People is the standout book in the series. Roy Lilley delivers a sharp, insightful guide to handling challenging personalities in both professional and personal settings.

The book explores seven classic difficult personality types, including hostile-aggressive individuals, complainers, silent-unresponsive people, and know-it-alls. Lilley provides tailored strategies for managing each type, emphasising the importance of staying calm, setting boundaries, and using effective communication techniques. One of the most valuable sections discusses conflict resolution, offering practical methods to defuse tense situations and turn confrontation into cooperation.

How to Deal with Difficult People is a clear, engaging, and highly practical resource that has helped me navigate tricky interactions with confidence. Whether you're dealing with a difficult boss, colleague, or customer, this book offers invaluable insights to transform frustration into productive dialogue.

Overall I did enjoy this book. There were definitely some great tips and treats on how to deal with difficult people. However, I do feel this book was more for people who are bosses or in upper management. There was much more information tailored to that category that the average employee, like myself. The introduction of the book was very confusing, talking about COVID, and remote working. I was not quite sure I was reading the correct book. Then came the QR codes. I will admit they had some good, interesting information, but there were so many in the beginning that I found it very distracting. Overall, it was good, I learned some things, which is all I can ask out of a self help type book.

Thanks to Kogan Page Ltd publishing for providing me an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I don’t generally read these types of books so I don’t have much to compare it to, however it found it quite interesting and insightful. There were some sections which felt “obvious” however these could still be useful for folks who do not work in HR as I do.

Overall, a really short read and could be useful for folks wanting to learn about the subject. I also appreciated the links out to other resources should you want to learn more.