Conflict

#Beingaleader means you have to deal with conflict. Sooner or later. And perhaps often. Disagreement. Clashing. Differences of opinion or desired direction.

You don’t have to go looking for it. It will find you. The question is how will you treat it? How will you react or respond? Let me break it up into two categories: conflict that is about you; and conflict that is about other people.

Conflict about you. This is when someone has a beef with you. Your ideas. Your direction or directives. I would encourage you to be ready to listen. To not be defensive. To first think that they might be right. That’s the only way you can see if your ideas, plans or directives are as fine tuned as you might initially think. This conflict might actually make your ideas better. But only if you are strong enough to handle it properly.

Conflict about other people. I find this one much harder to do then being on the receiving end. I don’t like to confront. I don’t like to be seen as criticizing. I don’t want to tear others down. But sometimes it’s important for the whole team for you to step into this discomfort zone. You can’t, however, control the response. You can only control the way in which your communication is delivered. Truth with love or Radical Candor (https://www.radicalcandor.com/the-book/) is needed.

#Beingaleader means you have to deal with conflict. Get ready.