Bestselling author and transformational speaker Ryan Leak shares research-based strategies for working with even the most challenging people to create more collaborative and productive teams.

Who is the most complicated person you work with?

You probably don’t have to think very hard to answer that question. You already know their name, their job title, their quirks, and their flaws. You have firsthand experience with the mental and emotional fallout they leave in their wake. You’ve seen the problems their complexity creates for everyone on their team. You wish you could fix them, solve them, ignore them, or teleport them to a parallel dimension.

But you can’t.

You have to work with them.

(You could quit, but your next job will have a complicated person waiting for you.)

That means you need effective strategies to collaborate with (nearly) anyone. Especially the picky, prickly, problematic ones.

Drawing from his global consulting experience with teams and leaders from the glitz of sports and entertainment, to the number-crunching world of finance, to the meticulous realms of insurance, pharma, and manufacturing, Ryan Leak provides proven strategies for…

• Seeing challenging individuals as human beings to understand rather than problems to solve


• Detoxing unrealistic expectations and getting comfortable with complicated


• Learning to communicate effectively in complex environments


• Embracing healthy disagreement as a tool to discover better solutions


• Setting boundaries that let people into your world without letting them run your world

“The process of learning to collaborate with difficult individuals is transformative—it’s a gateway to greater creativity, stronger teams, and increased productivity,” Leak explains. “On the other side of complicated is the wonderful, wide-open world of effective collaboration and a workplace you love.”