NEGATIVE TALK FROM NEGATIVE PEOPLE

The old classic. What do you do about the negative person
talking behind your back and trying to bring you down?

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Sure you can confront them and join them in their little
game.
You can give them the satisfaction of knowing that they got
in your head.
You can turn your life into a grade school
gossip hall.
Of course, there are times, unfortunately, that you have to
engage with people like this. You may have to set the record
straight on a serious allegation. You may have to challenge
statements that might be damaging to the team or the
mission.
And when you do have to engage, do it professionally. Say
something like:
“I heard you had some pointers for me about how I’m doing my
job. I’d love to get your feedback so I can tighten up my
game.”

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A statement like that will likely diffuse the scenario. The
person will know that there are informants who will tell you
what is going on. And that will likely stifle the situation.
But let me tell you what my preferred methodology is *for
this situation:
It is simple:just

Ignore and outperform.

Yes. While you are over there watching me and talking about
me—I’m working.

I’m working hard. I’m taking things to the next level.

You keep gossiping—I’ll keep working.
You keep talking smack—I’ll keep working.
You keep chattering about things—I’ll keep working.
You keep focusing on what everyone else is doing
wrong—I’ll keep focusing on what I can do RIGHT.

And when you finally look around at where you are and where
I am.
-you will realize that you have nothing to talk smack about.
Because you will lose.
And I. Will. Win.
And this applies to when people are playing office politicsor forming their cliques or working their personal agendas.
Of course—sometimes you have to play those games too.

But when dealing with people like this, let your first
course of action and the fundamental core of how you handle
it be very clear and very direct:
Outwork and outperform every last one of them.