When you have to be a professional, it means that your personal feelings have no place.  Not fun, but it is the reality.  Learning how to deal with haters as a professional means coming at it from a totally different perspective than my previous talk about how to deal with haters personally!

How to get over the haters

While I certainly wish that none of us would have to deal with haters, it’s part of the job.  Understanding what to do professionally can help make sure that we keep from tanking our businesses/job opportunities because of it.

• Take a browse through the professional chatrooms: Even though I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, the chatrooms are full of people who have gone through this, too.  Maybe their experiences aren’t quite as severe, or maybe they’re worse.  Whatever the case, the professional chatrooms (targeted to your job position, if possible) are a great place to read, learn, and generally cool off.  There’s strength in numbers!  Feel like sharing your own story?  Go for it!

• Learn whatever you can from the experience: Sure, it’s no fun to be the grown-up, but if you make it your mission to learn important and valuable tips that you can use later in your professional life, you’d be surprised how quickly the anger seeps away.  Seriously!  I tried it myself and I found that not only did it help me keep my cool in the future, it also taught me how to potentially spot a bad customer or simply a bad connection before it got to the point of exploding.  And I also felt no guilt in trusting that and walking away from them.

• Kill ‘em with kindness: I’ll admit, this is not a popular option for some people — and I don’t blame you!  This person is being a total jerk and you want to reach through the computer and flick ‘em on the forehead, right?!  Yeah, I know.  But, being sugary sweet is going to seriously be a huge power trip (in your favour).  One of the best ways to try it out is to ignore all their caps lock yelling and insults, first of all.  Reply back to thank them for their feedback (without acknowledging anything specific) and then wish them luck in the future.  This means you’ve done your professional duty, as far as managers or review teams are concerned, but you’ve also made it clear that you aren’t going to take the bait. And you know what the best part is?  It’s going to seriously tick them off and transition the power to you at the same time.  Booya!

You’ll become stronger for it

It’s one of those things that people just say as a platitude, but it really is true.  You get to learn how to be a good professional head, which is always good. What’s better, though, is that dealing with the haters also gets a little easier because you’ve heard it all before and it’s just another person yelling at you.  Not fun, sure, but it means that walking away from it relatively unruffled gets a whole lot easier.

What it all comes down to, professionally speaking, is one-upping your haters by taking away their power.  These tips will help you do it safely and they can also be applied to all sorts of experiences!  Have any tips you’d like to share?  Go ahead!