Back in August, I got acquainted with a very charming young man who works and lives in the sunny state of Florida. As a real estate agent, his work is connected with people that are sometimes pleasant, and sometimes not, and he asked me how to recognize difficult people and how deal with them.

Here is an example of how negative characteristics manifest in an imbalanced BaZi profile chart. Let’s look at a person’s “Wealth Profile”. People with Wealth profiles are responsible, organized and studious workers. And, in extreme cases, the person with imbalance Wealth profile can be a control freak. These types of people will be unable to or will deny delegating, and they will have difficulty letting go of control.

The BaZi profiling system was presented by Joey Yap and it helps us to understand people’s characteristics on a deeper level. Basically, the main idea of profiling system is that if a person’s BaZi chart is imbalanced (for example someone’s chart has excessive fire and water elements) then it is reflected in their behavior. But how badly is it reflected? Here is where the profiling system plays a big role.

Each profile type has negative characteristics that will manifest more than the positive characteristics.

Let’s take a look at the extreme cases of each of the five profile types, how negativity they would manifest and how to best to deal with these folks.

Extreme Wealth profile: these people are extreme perfectionists in a bad way. They are control freaks, hypercritical and have poor delegation skills. They do not trust anybody with work. They might use bully tactics to get their way and they only promote their standards, which are usually ridiculously high.  The best way to deal with these people is to send “status report” emails or prepare a huge, but structured, document with various amounts of information. Also, if you have a meeting with such a customer, come five minutes earlier.

Extreme Output profile: these are “I know everything” types of people. They are highly critical, rough, imperious, egotistical, and have zero receptivity to suggestions. Usually people with the Output profile have a preference for something new and untested, like trying out unconventional approaches or tactics. And most importantly, Output profile people love to talk.
How to handle these people? Just try not to educate them or give any suggestions. Provide non-standard tactics for this type of person, or look at what is new on the market and let them decide. Remember, these are people that are highly complex and like to be “Lone rangers”.

Extreme Resource profile: Slow, sluggish, pedantic, people with an extreme resource profile like as many details as possible. They are over thinkers, unable to commit or make any decisions because they need to think things over and over and over. Typically, negative Resource profile people have difficulty concentrating and are always forgetful. They could even lose important documents.
In order to keep this person happy, provide them with a lot of detailed information (for example if you are real estate agent, offer detailed information like the colors of bedrooms, what countertops are made out, the size of backyard compared to the entire lot, etc. ) Do not ask them to make quick decisions. Make all the information available in 2 to 3 copies, and always keep extra copies for yourself.

Extreme Companion profile: They are commonly very soft in character and that usually hinders business. They do not defend their view, are too nice to everyone and because of it, nothing is done. They are accommodating people, but are lacking any opinion as they do not want to offend anyone. They never lead and prefer to follow. The worst is that they tend to complain behind your back.
When interacting with these people, do not ask for any opinions, and if you do, you are not going to get a truth. Remember, these people always assent. Give this person as much information as possible and a little more time to make a decision.

Of course all this is a very broad picture of each extreme variant of the five profiles. The power dynamics of your relationship with this Difficult Person will typically yield a more precise insight into how their “difficultness” will manifest.

Next time I’ll cover the positive aspects of all 5 types of profiles.