Dealing with passive aggressors

Yesterday, we discussed dealing with aggressors, but what about passive aggressors?

Catherine The Great had to deal with one…her husband Peter, Czar of Russia.

In private they got along well, but she would hear second-hand stories of how he regretted their marriage and preferred her chambermaid. He would do petty things like telling the royal gardener to stop delivering her favorite fruits, or subtly humiliate her at court.

She dealt with this passive-aggressor, not by “playing his game,” but instead by putting up a nice front and winning over key allies in court and the military (many of whom also despised him).

In The 50th Law, Robert Greene says, “The only way to treat these types is to take bold, uncompromising action that either discourages further nonsense or sends them running away. They respond only to power and leverage…You are playing The Lion to their Fox making them afraid of you.”