How to Remain Professional in the Face of Adversity
It isn't always easy to remain professional in the face of adversity but it can be done. The first thing you need to do is remain objective. How do you do that? Put yourself outside the situation, as if you were observing it, instead of actually being the one in it. Try to see the situation as a third person would. To do that you have to keep your emotions in check. Do not let yourself be drawn into an argument. It is best to let the other person express their feelings, opinions and frustrations and then you can go through them together to find a solution that fits the problem.
If you remain calm in a heated situation, the other person will take cues from your demeanor and it will diffuse a potentially volatile situation. You might need to take a few deep breaths and remind yourself that it isn't an attack on you personally. The other person may just be frustrated and need to vent and if you can present a calm front while dealing with them you are leaps ahead!
Sometimes the problem that has caused stress can be easily solved by just siting down with the person. Say, they are boiling mad at a co-worker and they want that person fired immediately! Once you've talked to them you find out that the other employee was eating carrots at their desk and it was causing tension in an otherwise quiet office. Just letting the other person talk about their frustration and indicating that you understand goes a long way towards calming them. The solution just may be that the employee goes to the break room to munch!
The most important thing to remember when facing adversity is that the other person usually just wants to be heard and they want to feel like they matter. If given the chance to do that the situation will often resolve itself. But, it that isn't the case, and further intervention is required, just remember that it usually isn't an attack on you personally, but a frustration from the current situation, or even possibly, a culmination of several instances that have led to this problem blowing up.
You may need to bring in a third person as a mediator if the problem does involve you personally. In that case it does become harder to remain professional if you feel you are being attacked on a personal level. You can still remain calm and professional with the help of the third person to diffuse the tension and keep things professional.
Put yourself in the other person's shoes and think how you would like to be treated if you had a problem. Most likely you want someone to understand what you are going through and help you find a way to resolve what has become an issue or problem.
So, remain calm, take some deep breaths, view it as if you were someone looking from the outside of the situation, and prepare to listen and empathize.
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