We’ve all faced the challenge of dealing with difficult people – those who refuse to give you what you want in negotiation for no clear reason other than sheer stubbornness.
But dismissing others as stubborn, irrational, and difficult is typically a mistake. When dealing with difficult employees, clients, customers, and others, the most important step you can take is typically to stop looking at them as stubborn and to begin listening closely to their concerns.
Take the case of a new multinational child-support treaty, the Uniform Interstate Family Security Act (UIFSA). The United States, the European Union, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norway, and Ukraine negotiated the treaty over the course of five years in The Hague. The treaty’s goal is to improve enforcement of child-support orders across international and state borders.
