The 9 Types – And What Comes Next

I’ve now made videos about all nine types of difficult people.

In this final video in the series, I reflect on what the book and the conversations around it have meant — and where my work is heading next.

The 9 Types of Difficult People has spent a sustained period in the top 10 of its Amazon category, and I’ve had the opportunity to speak about it at major conferences and large webinars. But what has mattered most are the messages from people who’ve recognised themselves in one of the types, or who’ve said it helped them handle a difficult situation differently.

Because most of us will spend around 80,000 hours of our lives at work.

Those hours can be shaped by friction and misunderstanding — or by clarity, courage and collaboration.

In this video I share why difficult dynamics don’t just sit inside individuals. They play out inside systems. And why the senior leadership team has such an outsized impact on what becomes normal in an organisation.

If you’re dealing with a challenging dynamic, or you’re interested in strengthening the team at the top, this is for you.

📘 The 9 Types of Difficult People — available now
🔔 Follow for more insights on leadership, culture and working relationships
🌐 Get in touch for coaching and senior leadership team development

The Worrier – Type 7

The workplace micromanager who can’t stop checking everything, and still ends up causing mistakes!

Ever worked with someone who hovers over every task, double-checks every detail and still ends up dropping the ball? That’s The Worrier, Type 7 in my 9 Types of Difficult People framework.

Worriers are so anxious about mistakes that they can become intense micromanagers. They stand over their team, trying to make sure nothing goes wrong, but that pressure often causes the very errors they fear.

In this video I share:

  • Why fear of mistakes can lead to constant checking and unexpected slip-ups
  • How to help a Worrier loosen their grip and let their team grow
  • Ways to shift their attention from “what might go wrong” to “what really matters”.

For more on tackling tricky workplace dynamics and helping teams thrive, check out my book The 9 Types of Difficult People or follow me here for more videos.

The Driving Force – Type 4

They can move mountains – or mow you down!

In this video, I unpack Difficult Person Type 4 from my book: the Driving Force.

You’ll learn:

  • Why they’re often seen as unstoppable heroes
  • The risks of their low tolerance for ‘timid’ colleagues
  • How to spot when they’re heading for overload
  • Practical tactics for getting win–wins and protecting your boundaries.

The Driving Force can be one of the most valuable people in your organisation – if you know how to channel their energy.

📖 Discover all nine types in my book The 9 Types of Difficult Peopl

The Martyr – Type 3

Some of the most difficult people at work are highly principled, uncompromising, and quietly self-sacrificing.

This video looks at The Martyr, Type 3 in The 9 Types of Difficult People.

Martyrs work harder than anyone else, care deeply about doing the right thing, and often step forward when others hesitate.

But under pressure, judgement, withdrawal, and unilateral action can stall progress and block decision-making.

If you’re leading, working alongside, or reporting to someone like this, understanding what’s really going on makes a big difference.

The People Pleaser – Type 9

The most dangerous word at work isn’t “No”. It’s “Yes.”

“Yes, I’ll sort it.”
“Yes, that’s fine.”
“Yes, leave it with me.”

Because sometimes that “Yes” doesn’t mean agreement. It means avoidance.

In this final instalment of my 9 Types of Difficult People series, I explore Type 9: The People Pleaser.

Warm. Trusted. Well connected.
At their best, they create harmony and steady performance.

But under pressure, that desire for harmony can lead to avoided conversations, slipping standards, and important changes being delayed.

You can’t have real harmony if standards are falling.
And the standard you walk past becomes the standard you accept.

If you lead a People Pleaser, don’t just take agreement at face value.
If you are one, there’s good news: when you develop the confidence to have difficult conversations, you don’t lose your warmth — you gain your influence.

This is the ninth and final type in the series.
In the next video, I’ll wrap it all up and share some essential tips that will always help.

I’m Nick Robinson and I help leaders and teams to turn challenging dynamics into great working relationships. My book The 9 Types of Difficult People is an Amazon and WHS best-seller. My current focus is The Shift, an in-person development programme for Senior Leadership Teams who sense that they are not yet working as well together as they could.

The Dark Strategist – Type 2

Some of the most difficult people at work aren’t disruptive or emotional. Instead, they treat others like chess pieces, objects to be moved around in the dark, in service of a grand plan.

In this short video, I talk about the Dark Strategist, Type Two in The 9 Types of Difficult People.

Dark Strategists are often insightful and ambitious. They like having a clear plan and working behind the scenes to perfect it.

Problems start when the plan begins to matter more than the people. Colleagues can be moved around without consultation, information may be withheld, and decisions taken quietly without buy-in.

The impact is often people feeling manipulated, excluded, and undervalued.

You’ll also hear what helps. How leaders and coaches can role-model inclusive collaboration, and why remembering that the map is not the territory can make such a difference. I also touch on how to influence a Dark Strategist by speaking their language and engaging with the big picture, the strategy, and the wider business model.

With the right coaching, Dark Strategists can become powerful, insightful leaders that people actually want to follow.

Article: Scary Specialist – Difficult Person Type 1

Some of the most difficult people at work are difficult precisely because they’re so good at what they do. They deliver, they set the standard and they make it very clear when others don’t meet that standard.

In this article I’ll explore the Scary Specialist: type 1 in my 9 Types of Difficult People. I’ll look at:

  • The core pattern behind the Scary Specialist
  • The paradox at the heart of their behaviour
  • Practical ways to respond, whether you lead them or work alongside them

 

Who the Scary Specialist Is

The Scary Specialist is the expert who really isn’t afraid to let you know that they’re the expert.

These are people with deep knowledge and serious capability. They care about competence, pace, quality, and they set the bar very high for themselves and for everyone else.

At their best, they can really be the engine room of your business; driving results and driving success.

When it Starts to go Wrong

But things get difficult when anything threatens their ability to deliver.

That might be a weak process or a colleague who isn’t pulling their weight. Or a change that threatens their independence or threatens their control over their domain.

And when that happens, they become even more critical and even more demanding, and they will say exactly what they think no matter how brutally honest.

The Impact on Others

So you might notice people starting to tiptoe around them, or that new joiners to their department don’t last very long, and that other people start to leave the organisation because of them.

And this is the paradox, of course.

The Scary Specialist values competence above all else. But under pressure, their behaviour creates fear and silence and withdrawal in others.

And so the overall performance of the organisation, your organisational competency starts to suffer.

Leading a Scary Specialist

So if you are leading a Scary Specialist, you need to be very clear about any negative impacts they’re having.

Vague feedback or hoping they’ll somehow get nicer rarely works.

Above all, as a leader, you need to demand that your Scary Specialist continues to raise their level of competence. But not just their technical skills or their know-how, but also their competence in their own leadership and their competence in how they relate to other people.

Working with a Scary Specialist

If you’re working for, or alongside a Scary Specialist, two things really matter.

  1. Raise your own standards where you genuinely can. Become really good at your job. That’s all they really want from you;
  2. Be clear about your boundaries and be prepared to stand up for your boundaries.

 

Scary Specialists, respect, drive, and independence. So just tell them directly whenever their behaviour crosses some kind of a line for you. And the more direct you are in this, the more likely you are to get a good result from them.

At Their Best

At their best, Scary Specialists are not really scary at all.

They’re the experts whose drive and standards lift everyone around them.

But that only works, of course, when their expertise serves the whole organisation and not just their small patch of it.

About Me

I’m an executive coach helping leaders and senior teams turn challenging dynamics into great working relationships.

My first full-length book, The 9 Types of Difficult People, published by Pearson, is an Amazon and WHSmith best-seller. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1292726067

My new flagship programme The Shift is a team development experience for senior leadership teams who sense they’re not yet working well enough together, maybe not firing on all cylinders, even if no one has said it out loud. https://www.nickrobinson.org/the-shift-leadership-team-development

The Rock – Type 8

That “stubborn” colleague slowing everything down? They’re not blocking progress – they’re protecting the foundations.

Meet the Rock – Type 8 in The 9 Types of Difficult People

Rocks are the calm, steady figures who keep everything running smoothly… until change threatens the stability they’ve built. Their resistance isn’t negativity – it’s caution born from responsibility.

In this short video, I explain:

🎯 Why Rocks hold back when others want to move fast

🤝 How to earn their trust and turn them into allies

🏗 The leadership moves that make progress possible without breaking what already works.

You’ll learn how to lead through trust, not pressure – and how to build teams that balance safety with change.

From my book The 9 Types of Difficult People – helping leaders and teams turn challenging dynamics into great working relationships.

The Rock: Difficult Person Type 8

If you have a colleague who is not moving a project forward and it feels as if you have hit solid granite, nothing budging no matter how hard you push, that is a Rock. Type 8 in my 9 Types of Difficult People.

On the surface, a Rock is usually calm, dependable and unshakeable. Underneath, they’re gripping the foundation so tightly that nothing can shift until they are convinced it is safe.

And this is where the problems start. Progress slows, deadlines slide, and everyone else wonders why everything takes so long!

What’s Really Going On

Rocks have an instinct for how everything fits together. They see the invisible plumbing of an organisation: all the connections and dependencies.

They worry that if one valve is turned too quickly, something somewhere else will burst. Their resistance is not laziness and it’s not awkwardness. It’s fear that something important will break.

Good Foundations – But No Building

I once worked with a Rock who was responsible for a key operational system. Whenever the leadership team launched a new project, he would nod, take the papers and then disappear for weeks.

When I asked how things were going, he would say: “Oh, it’s all fine; we’re tidying up the old database first.”

What he really meant was: I am making sure the foundations are solid before I build on top. The problem was that no one else knew progress wasn’t happening!

If You’re Leading or Coaching a Rock

The worst thing you can do is treat their caution as negativity. Instead:

  • Show that you understand the risks they are guarding against
  • Demonstrate your own sense of responsibility; that you’ve also thought through the consequences of what’s going on
  • Involve them early in the planning process, so that you can ask them what they think could go wrong; and
  • Make sure you listen properly to their concerns

Once they know you value their foresight, they will shift from blocker to ally.

When You’re Working with a Rock

Persuasion works best when it is framed as problem avoidance.

  • Don’t say: “We need to do this to innovate.”
  • Do say: “We need to do this now, so it doesn’t cause bigger problems later on.”

If you speak their language of prevention and continuity, they will often quickly get on board.

If You Report to a Rock

Remember that Rocks often hold themselves and their teams to very high standards. They will put in long hours keeping everything running smoothly and will expect the same from you.

It helps to:

  • Set clear boundaries early, at the same time as …
  • Showing you are dependable
  • Making sure you don’t let their workload quietly swallow yours.

 

When Rocks Are at Their Best

They are the calm centre of the storm: solid, consistent, trusted by everyone.

They:

  • See how the moving parts connect
  • Anticipate problems before they appear
  • Give organisations the stability that allows real progress to happen

When you recognise that and include them properly, Rocks stop being barriers and become the foundation of lasting success.

About me

I am an executive coach helping leaders and senior teams turn challenging dynamics into great working relationships. I coach and write about how senior leadership teams can fulfil their potential and how leaders and managers can deal with difficult relationships and people at work. My first full-length book, The 9 Types of Difficult People, published by Pearson, is an Amazon and WHSmith best-seller.

If you or your team might need coaching support, please get in touch.

The Scary Specialist – Type 1

Ever worked with someone who gets results, but people keep leaving because of them?

This video looks at the Scary Specialist: the expert whose constant criticism and blunt honesty drive capable people out of the organisation.

In this video, I explore:

  • How their relentless criticism creates fear and silence
  • Why good people stop speaking up, disengage, or leave
  • The hidden cost of “brilliant but brutal” behaviour
  • What leaders must confront when expertise comes with a human price

Scary Specialists care deeply about standards. The irony is that their behaviour often destroys the very competency they value most!

For more on how to turn challenging dynamics into great working relationships, look out for my book The 9 Types of Difficult People, follow me here, or get in touch for more coaching and support.