Nothing disrupts a bully more than the target behaving in an unpredictable way. Bully behaviour is designed to intimidate, but when their words or behaviour don’t have the desired effect, not only are they shocked, they are disrupted.
And that’s exactly what needs to happen to disarm a bully. You will most likely stop being a target quite soon if they don’t get their power fix from you. Here are a few disruptors that can throw them off their game.
“Hang on would you mind repeating that. I want to make sure I got it right.”
“Hold on till I get a paper and pen so I can write it down for my records.”
“Wait while I turn my phone recorder on. I want to make sure I heard you properly.”
“My, you must have gotten out of the wrong side of the bed this morning. I’ll be back when you have yourself together.”
“Wow. You must be having a really bad day. I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?”
These disruptors break the spell for the bully. They do take a certain level of confidence to pull them off of course but the surprising thing about bullies is that if you are game enough to call them out, they often back down.
Disruptors take the process to a whole new level and help to beat the bully at his or her own game.
If you are being bullied at work and you’d like to develop the level of confidence to required to call a bully out, then connect with me and we’ll have a conversation about what that would take.
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