Mike And Alison After Hours: Eric Williamson — How To Work With Jerks
This episode of the Mike And Alison After Hours podcast features Eric Williamson, emotional intelligence expert, leadership consultant and author of How To Work With Jerks.
Do you have difficulty doing your job because of the people you work with?
Virtually every profession, no matter what it entails, will, at a certain point, involve working with difficult people (also known as jerks). You can choose to obsess about these people, let them drag you down, and affect your productivity and quality of life — or you can learn how to work with them.
In this episode of After Hours, Mike and Alison talked to Eric Williamson, author of How To Work With Jerks. For the past few weeks, Mike and Alison have been promoting a giveaway of that very book, and announced the winner on this episode.
This episode also marks the beginning of a new series of episodes featuring a far more diverse range of guests. Instead of just focusing on specifically business-based topics, going forward, Mike and Alison plan to incorporate equally applicable subject matter, such as emotional intelligence.
In this episode, Mike and Alison talk with Eric about his book, his business, and the role emotional intelligence plays in effective leadership. Check out the full video for the complete discussion.
Get To Know Eric Williamson
“ I work at the intersection between emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, and leadership development,” says Eric. “ I work with IT leaders to help them achieve their short and long-term goals by removing some of that workplace friction.”
As a consultant, Eric works with managers and owners in the IT space, helping them to better understand the emotions at play between superiors and subordinates. By developing emotional intelligence and following best practices for addressing conflict, Eric assists these leaders in creating more effective workplaces.
Eventually, success in the field led Eric to write a book all about it: How To Work With Jerks. Eric understands how to work with difficult people because, according to him, he used to be one.
“In this book, I show readers how I navigated the process of being an expert jerk, turned jerk expert,” says Eric.
When entering the working world, Eric faced the same challenge that so many of us do: he assumed he would be as successful as he had been in school. When that success didn’t come immediately and easily, Eric became a bit of a jerk. It wasn’t until he realized how he was acting, and began addressing it, that Eric realized how common it really was.
Eric’s wife so often had the same difficult experiences at work as he did, and so, it didn’t take long for them to come up with the idea of writing a book about it. Eric began seeking out similar experiences from other people, conducting interviews and gaining more anecdotal evidence for what would eventually become How To Work With Jerks.
“I would talk to anyone that I could to get their take on what it’s like to have difficult relationships in the workplace, and what keeps people from being their best,” says Eric.
At its core, How To Work With Jerks is about recognizing the fact that no matter what, you will at some point have to work with people you don’t get along with. In some way, your professional success will involve people that are fundamentally different from you. You can’t avoid them and hope to achieve the same success, which is why you need to know how to deal with them.
“No matter how smart, talented or gifted they are, the one thing that gets in people’s way is their inability to manage relationships with other people,” says Eric.
Over the course of this episode of Mike And Alison After Hours, Eric explained some of his methodology, and explored the content he covers in his book. The key is in understanding both oneself, and the inevitability of working with people who you do not get along with. By learning how to communicate effectively, work on oneself, and let the jerks be, you can gain more success in your field.
For the complete discussion with Eric on emotional intelligence and more, make sure to check out the full episode of the Mike And Alison After Hours podcast. You can get in touch with Eric at ewilliamson@tailoredtrainingsolutions.com and 866-934-9945, or visit https://tailoredtrainingsolutions.com.
Want to be a guest on our show? Contact Mike or Alison today! If your company is looking for the most secure IT support contact Mike at mshelah@getadvantage.com or call 443-773-2391. If you are looking for the best HR support money can buy at the best price, then contact Alison at ahaase1315@gmail.com or call 443-823-5480
Thanks to our sponsor Advantage Industries: www.getadvantage.com, and special thanks to our marketing team Ulistic (www.ulistic.com) for producing every episode.
