We all deal with it, frankly, I am still shocked when I see someone acting blissfully and unabashedly entitled. Acting as if the rest of us humans are in their circle of “ME”...
BUT, armed with the right mindset, their behavior (especially a difficult client) can be your asset.
This happened to me just this morning on a train here in Boston. There was a man on a conference call, acting respectfully, speaking as low as he could and doing his job. Three stops later a woman gets on the train... roams up and down the isle a few times with the presence of a dementor until she finally picks her seat (across the isle and 3 people away from our dude on the phone). Immediately she begins to make an embarrassingly obvious effort to stare at the man every two minutes, while shoving her fingers in her oh so delicate, never experienced noise in pubic before, ears and looking around at the rest of us — all who are working and have earbuds in — as if we are experiencing the same horrible injustice she is... forced to sit near a working person on a commuter train, heading to the city, during rush hour, who chose to sit in a non-quiet car, probably because he knew he had a call.
We all run across behavior like this and unfortunately, we all see it in our clients from time to time. The good news is that you can leverage that entitlement to work for you. Entitlement is just a false sense of importance... it stems from an internal insecurity that they aren't, in fact, important. Nothing will make that person happier than to feel important... so there you have it! That’s the magic trick that will help you earn favor with the most high maintenance of clients... treat them as they want to be treated... the platinum rule.
