How to Work With a Client You Don’t Like

From the Personal Branding Blog

We deal with all types of people when we are working and some of them may not be very easy to work with. When you have a client that you feel will give a hard time, try to implement the below tactics for a smoother mode of operation.

• Be Professional: You don’t need to be friends with your client to do your job. Obviously, it would be much better if your client is someone that you can work with easily and in a friendly way. However, in real life, unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen and sometimes we need to deal with people whom we cannot get along with well. In these types of situations, it is best to keep in mind that you are a professional and you are here to do your job and won’t see this person in your personal life. Separate your emotions from your work and treat this person neutrally. You don’t need to chit chat or try to make jokes during work or meetings, just talk to him/her about work and tell him/her what you need to and don’t go beyond that.
• Write Down Everything: In order not to encounter any problems with your client in the future, make sure to write everything down in a detailed way. Especially, when you are working with clients that are not very understanding, writing down everything gains more importance than ever. Create a project plan with milestones and deadlines. Explain him/her how the work will flow and how you prefer to receive feedback about your work. Also, don’t forget to add how you will handle the change requests. If you mutually set the expectations in advance, it would be much easier both for you and your client to work throughout the project.
• Delegate some of the Work: Build yourself a great team if you have a chance. You don’t need to be the only person doing the work, delegate some parts of the work to your teammates. Let other people share your responsibility. For example, don’t feel obligated to attend all of the client meetings; your coworkers can handle them without you as well. Don’t get caught up only in this project and step away from it from time to time.

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