You're responsible for helping your Scrum team work better. But you're not their boss.

Sprint Planning starts. You suggest an approach. One developer says, "That won't work," and pushes back again when you explain why. Someone else rolls their eyes. Your Product Owner jumps in, and the conversation gets tense.

Everyone in the room expects you to handle it.

But you have no formal authority over any of them.

So what do you actually do?

This course answers that question. It's not a general course about difficult people. It's built specifically for Scrum Masters, and anyone else working inside a Scrum team, who need to influence behavior they can't simply command.

Does this sound familiar?

• A developer challenges everything you propose in planning

• Someone agrees to a plan in the Sprint meeting, then does something completely different afterward

• A team member dominates every discussion and talks over everyone else

• Someone complains constantly but never offers a solution

• Your Product Owner is confrontational, or tells a different story about the team to leadership than what actually happened

• A team member undermines decisions after the meeting is over

• You want to set a boundary, but you're worried about damaging the relationship

• You avoid a conversation you know you need to have, because you don't know how to start it

• Your team is remote or hybrid, and the in-person tricks you used to rely on don't work anymore

If any of that sounds like your team, you're in the right place.

What this course actually teaches

Most advice about difficult people assumes you have some kind of authority to fall back on. As a Scrum Master, you usually don't. This course gives you a practical way to influence behavior anyway: understanding what you're actually dealing with, managing your own reactions first, setting boundaries that hold, and having the conversation you've been avoiding, all without needing to be anyone's manager.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:

• Recognize the type of difficult behavior you're facing instead of treating every situation the same way

• Stay calm when someone is deliberately trying to provoke you

• Set boundaries without turning yourself into the team's enforcer

• Start a difficult conversation using a simple framework, so you're not guessing what to say

• Respond to specific behaviors: the constant complainer, the aggressive team member, the "friendly sniper" making snide comments in meetings, the chatterbox, the know-it-all, and the team member who nags and undermines

• Handle a difficult Product Owner or stakeholder when you have no authority over them

• Translate your approach for remote and hybrid teams, where the usual in-person tactics don't carry over directly

• Stop replaying difficult interactions in your head long after they're over

Who this course is for

This course is built with Scrum Masters in mind first. But the techniques apply just as directly to Product Owners, developers, Agile coaches, and team leads, or anyone who needs to influence team behavior without relying on formal authority.

What's inside

Part 1: Master Your Own Reactions
Why difficult behavior triggers you the way it does, and how to get control of that before you try to control anything else.

1. Introduction to the course: Dealing with Uncooperative and Difficult Scrum Team Members

2. Why deal with difficult people?

3. Understanding Why you get mad...

4. All control starts with self-control

5. Ways that we allow people to control us

6. See angry people as hurt, not bad

7. What causes anger issues?

8. What is the Explanatory style?

9. How to control yourself

10. How To Get People To Like You?

11. What are the benefits of effective negotiation?

Part 2: Build a Team Where Difficult Behavior Is Less Likely
Trust, respect, and boundaries that prevent most conflict before it starts.

12. Setting Limits and Boundaries

13. How to demonstrate mutual respect in the Scrum team?

14. The importance of trust in a Scrum Team

15. Why does Kindness Matter?

16. Helping but not enabling

17. Being responsible for your actions

18. How to Avoid Being an Easy Target?

Part 3: Handle Specific Difficult Personalities
Practical, targeted responses for the exact type of behavior you're dealing with.

19. How to deal with people who whine and complain all the time?

20. How to deal with bossy and aggressive people?

21. How to deal with The "Friendly Sniper" type of people?

22. How to solve a problem with a really angry person?

23. How to deal with a chatterbox person?

24. How to deal with a "know-it-all" problem person?

25. How to deal with nagging Scrum team members?

Part 4: Handle Difficult Product Owners and Stakeholders
What to do when the person causing friction has more organizational power than you do.

26. Dealing with an Uncooperative Product Owner or Stakeholder

27. Your progress so far...

Part 5: Have the Conversation
A repeatable framework for saying what needs to be said, clearly and without blame.

28. Handling Difficult Behavior in Remote and Hybrid Scrum Teams

29. Mastering the Art of Uncomfortable Conversations

30. Don't replay the old movies in your head

31. How To Stay Calm Around Those Who Push Your Buttons?

Part 6: Put It All Together

32. Tips that will help you deal with uncooperative team members in Scrum

33. Conclusion

What you get

Video lectures with real-world examples and language you can use directly in your next conversation, a reference guide you can return to whenever a new situation comes up, and instructor support along the way.

You don't need formal authority to handle difficult behavior. You need the right approach.

Enroll and let's get started.

This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.