Working with Difficult Clientele

Jill Goedeken Author

06/04/2025 Added

49 Plays

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Jill discusses communication, conflict, and navigating challenging situations.

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[00:00:00.000]Hello, my name is Jill Godekin.
[00:00:04.840]I am the 4-H Professional
[00:00:06.720]Development and Volunteer
[00:00:08.460]Extension Educator serving in
[00:00:10.600]the state 4-H office. I've been
[00:00:13.080]asked to provide a video for
[00:00:15.280]the roadside chats and I'm
[00:00:17.070]going to be piggybacking off of
[00:00:19.180]what Linda Reddish said in her
[00:00:21.900]chat here
[00:00:22.860]recently. Some of you may have
[00:00:25.490]participated in this session
[00:00:27.900]that Angie Heller and I did a
[00:00:30.610]couple
[00:00:30.800]of times towards the end of May
[00:00:33.110]called Navigating Challenging Situations.
[00:00:36.690]And if you didn't, that's
[00:00:38.540]okay. I'll be giving a little
[00:00:40.900]glimpse into that. Then also if
[00:00:43.430]you did, this is just a
[00:00:45.260]reminder of
[00:00:46.500]some key things that really
[00:00:48.690]talk about conflict and
[00:00:50.730]potentially challenging
[00:00:52.700]situations. And I'm going to be
[00:00:52.840]giving a little glimpse into
[00:00:52.840]that. And if you didn't, I'll
[00:00:52.840]be
[00:00:52.840]going into the summer months.
[00:00:56.070]So I'd like to remind everyone
[00:00:59.090]that all behavior is a form of
[00:01:01.680]communication. And I think that
[00:01:04.100]that's not a surprise to us as
[00:01:06.010]we interact with our colleagues
[00:01:07.960]and clientele. In addition to
[00:01:10.510]that, distressed behaviors may
[00:01:13.290]be present and they might
[00:01:15.150]involve
[00:01:15.900]a risk of harm to us as either
[00:01:18.650]emotionally, physically,
[00:01:22.820]or physically. And that we're
[00:01:23.820]going to talk a little bit more
[00:01:24.750]about that and how we can help
[00:01:25.940]prevent some of that from
[00:01:27.560]happening. First of all, if you're
[00:01:30.090]a 4-H staff member, you might
[00:01:32.370]have
[00:01:32.540]participated in our summer
[00:01:34.220]refresh session. In that
[00:01:35.890]session, we talked a lot about
[00:01:37.990]preventative
[00:01:38.680]approaches and talking about
[00:01:42.070]assisting families and clientele.
[00:01:45.660]But I really think this goes to
[00:01:47.500]all program areas. Not all
[00:01:49.940]clientele can be served in the
[00:01:52.350]same way. So I'm going to talk
[00:01:52.800]a little bit
[00:01:52.800]about preventative approaches.
[00:01:54.180]And when we think about preventative
[00:01:55.600]approaches, I like to think
[00:01:57.600]about everyone from a 4-H
[00:01:59.680]family to a senior citizen that
[00:02:02.050]comes into our offices wanting
[00:02:04.480]information about 4-H, wanting
[00:02:06.510]information about lawn and
[00:02:08.080]garden types of topics. And I
[00:02:10.280]think about
[00:02:10.920]how we can interact with them
[00:02:13.360]in a way that makes sense for
[00:02:15.620]them, as well as a way to help
[00:02:18.060]potentially avoid conflict and
[00:02:20.400]avoid stress behavior as well.
[00:02:22.780]So specifically in our summer
[00:02:25.220]refresher, we talked about
[00:02:27.070]those preventative approaches,
[00:02:28.560]understanding what clientele
[00:02:30.880]may need some additional
[00:02:32.320]supports. So just like a senior
[00:02:34.580]citizen clientele, client might
[00:02:36.740]come in and they might need
[00:02:38.440]some lawn and garden types of
[00:02:40.260]information
[00:02:40.760]and may not have access to
[00:02:42.170]email or access to the internet
[00:02:43.980]in which we are going to
[00:02:45.180]provide
[00:02:45.820]that information in a different
[00:02:48.100]way. Kind of like a 4-H family
[00:02:50.270]may need some additional
[00:02:51.930]support to
[00:02:52.760]help the deadline. So, you know,
[00:02:54.220]what does that look like? That
[00:02:55.630]answer is kind of different for
[00:02:57.400]every office and every family.
[00:02:59.570]At the end of the day, though,
[00:03:01.750]helping and providing support
[00:03:03.880]and
[00:03:04.080]customer service to any client
[00:03:06.160]or any colleague that we are
[00:03:08.000]working with really helps us
[00:03:10.030]prevent
[00:03:10.520]some distress and challenging
[00:03:13.020]behaviors that we might see.
[00:03:15.480]Whereas if we don't go the
[00:03:17.330]extra mile in helping them in a
[00:03:19.480]way that they need help or
[00:03:22.520]assistance,
[00:03:22.740]we might find ourselves in more
[00:03:24.970]of a reactive approach in
[00:03:26.860]solving issues, having a crisis
[00:03:29.400]on
[00:03:29.660]our hands, having an upset
[00:03:31.600]client. And so when we think
[00:03:33.710]about how we do that is super
[00:03:35.650]important.
[00:03:36.520]To me, that is not hand-holding.
[00:03:39.230]That is not something that is
[00:03:41.420]beyond what we should be doing.
[00:03:43.720]We should be meeting our
[00:03:45.010]clients where they're at and
[00:03:46.590]helping them
[00:03:47.320]in a way that helps prevent a
[00:03:48.710]challenging behavior later on.
[00:03:50.520]That may take a little bit of
[00:03:51.210]time, but I think it's
[00:03:51.890]important to think about that.
[00:03:52.720]It may take extra time, but it's
[00:03:54.340]important to think about how
[00:03:55.780]that extra time on the front
[00:03:57.170]end
[00:03:57.400]can help us not spend extra
[00:03:59.380]time in a reactive approach on
[00:04:01.640]the back end to manage what
[00:04:03.570]happens
[00:04:04.160]if a client doesn't get the
[00:04:05.970]information they need in a way
[00:04:08.040]that they can access it,
[00:04:09.720]or if a family misses a
[00:04:10.880]deadline or things of that
[00:04:12.310]nature.
[00:04:12.920]I also want to touch base on
[00:04:15.560]precipitating factors. Precipitating
[00:04:19.620]factors are those that
[00:04:21.320]influence
[00:04:22.700]going into the summer. So going
[00:04:25.000]into the summer, things that
[00:04:26.290]come to mind for a precipitating
[00:04:27.740]factor
[00:04:28.200]might include things like heat,
[00:04:31.020]drought, storms, property
[00:04:33.390]damage, potentially markets or
[00:04:35.910]financial
[00:04:36.620]concerns, missing deadlines and
[00:04:38.540]health issues, just to name a
[00:04:40.180]few examples.
[00:04:41.160]While we as professionals
[00:04:43.060]cannot change any of those
[00:04:44.960]things, we can change how we
[00:04:47.320]respond to them
[00:04:48.540]or how we can mitigate some of
[00:04:50.240]our own precipitating factors.
[00:04:52.680]When I think about my own
[00:04:55.840]precipitating factors, I think
[00:04:59.750]about how I need to make sure
[00:05:01.400]that I'm
[00:05:01.760]getting enough sleep, I'm
[00:05:03.670]hydrated well, I'm eating
[00:05:05.570]healthy foods, and I have my
[00:05:07.560]favorite
[00:05:08.360]diet, Dr. Pepper, in the middle
[00:05:09.880]of the day. These are things
[00:05:11.140]that help mitigate my precipitating
[00:05:13.520]factors so I feel ready to
[00:05:15.530]support my colleagues, ready to
[00:05:18.100]support the clients that I work
[00:05:20.440]with
[00:05:20.940]in a way that doesn't cause any
[00:05:21.790]of those things to happen. So I
[00:05:22.660]think about how I need to make
[00:05:22.660]sure
[00:05:22.660]that the heat and some of those
[00:05:24.470]other things kind of bog me
[00:05:26.060]down, right? So think about
[00:05:27.960]your own
[00:05:28.420]precipitating factors. What do
[00:05:30.820]you need to do to ensure that
[00:05:32.710]you can respond to clients that
[00:05:35.070]may be
[00:05:35.520]having a challenging situation,
[00:05:37.930]but also just helping even on
[00:05:39.910]the preventative side? So
[00:05:42.320]taking
[00:05:42.920]care of yourself helps take
[00:05:44.720]care of others, and that I hope
[00:05:46.620]is a focus for you over the
[00:05:48.010]summer.
[00:05:48.800]So in summary, I just want to
[00:05:50.880]just touch base again.
[00:05:52.640]We talked about how all
[00:05:54.600]behavior is a form of
[00:05:55.560]communication, how preventative
[00:05:58.160]approaches
[00:05:58.640]from our perspective as
[00:06:00.380]professionals can help mitigate
[00:06:02.840]needing to be reactive later on,
[00:06:05.080]and at the same time,
[00:06:06.200]minimizing challenging
[00:06:07.520]behaviors that we might see.
[00:06:09.200]And also, we talked about
[00:06:11.110]precipitating factors today and
[00:06:13.550]how having those factors of our
[00:06:15.850]own
[00:06:16.100]in check helps us influence the
[00:06:18.180]behavior of others. I hope you
[00:06:20.340]have a wonderful summer,
[00:06:22.620]and we hope to see you all as
[00:06:24.240]the summer ends at the Nebraska
[00:06:26.150]State Fair. Thank you.

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