Even if someone disagrees with your opinions or beliefs, you’ll retain respect and garner more goodwill concessions if you can communicate what you’ve observed and what you want with polite assertiveness. Photo: American Ratings Corporation, 2017
Thinking and Acting Through Problem Resolution
When a conflict arises, tensions are high and to some degree the higher-order mental processes are compromised. Reactions can range from anger and aggressive conduct to unwarranted agreeableness. Both are reactions to fear and helplessness over a loss of traction required to reach an agreement.
The key to hitting the sweet spot of traction in a dispute is to achieve a state of polite assertiveness or a posture of quiet confidence. The path to polite assertiveness is to carefully explore underlying needs and beliefs through the power of curious questions. Questions can be an amazing workaround to derail unproductive mental chatter and usher in quiet confidence via self-knowledge.
1. What beliefs about this work did you hold before starting this project?
2. In your view, what event started this conflict? This could be the point in time when your faith or confidence in the other party was compromised. …Read more