by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Performance Issues, Relationships
Your body language speaks before you do. From being aware of your nonverbal signals and managing nervous energy to building trust and cultural awareness, your influence starts and stops with you. The best leaders take control of themselves and understand how they show...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership
A colleague is cutting corners on a client deliverable. Your manager is making promises the team can’t possibly keep. Someone’s expense reports look creative. You know you should say something. You want to say something. You’re trying to do the right...
by Productive Conflict | Anger, Leadership, Organizational Conflict, Performance Issues, Relationships
You’re in the executive team meeting. Your colleague Geri interrupts you again, mid-sentence, to pitch her version of the project timeline. Heat rises in your chest. Your jaw clenches. Before you know it, you’ve dismissed her entire proposal with a curt...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership
The most successful leaders share a common trait: they invest in conflict leadership skills before they’re in crisis mode. Research consistently shows that unresolved workplace conflict costs organizations in terms of lost productivity. In contrast, leaders who...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Organizational Conflict, Relationships
Disagreement quickly escalates to an existential threat. A neighbour’s political button feels like an assault on our values. A colleague’s way of life challenges our way of being. Religious practices that differ from our own appear like an affront to our community...
by Productive Conflict | Performance Issues, Relationships, Setting Boundaries
Microaggressions can slowly chip away at someone’s confidence. Unlike outright aggression, microaggressions are those brief, everyday comments or behaviours that communicate negative messages about who you are or where you belong. What makes microaggressions...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Relationships, Setting Boundaries
Are They Lying to You? The ability to detect deception is a valuable skill. While no method is foolproof, understanding the key indicators of dishonesty can help you make more informed decisions about who is trustworthy. As a mediator, I often notice people lying....
by Productive Conflict | Leadership
(Why Consistency Matters) Your heart sinks. Someone you trusted just acted entirely out of character. They throw you under the bus after months of collaboration, and suddenly become unreachable when you need support. What happened? The trust didn’t just...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Setting Boundaries
(And How to Fix Them) Think of the last three meetings you attended: on a scale of one to ten, how dysfunctional would you rate them (one being not at all dysfunctional, and ten being very dysfunctional)? If you rated your last three meetings anywhere above 5...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Performance Issues
Most people believe they make good decisions. But do they? When I work with leaders and their teams, I often untangle the problem of “people don’t know what they don’t know, but they think they have all they need to know to decide.” It occurs when people fail to...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Organizational Conflict
Conflict as Patterns Conflict is not a hurdle to be overcome, but a pattern to be understood; it is through the examination of these patterns that we unlock the truly creative potential of our challenges. We see conflict in various facets of our lives, from personal...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Organizational Conflict
Conflict is often seen as a negative force; something to be avoided or minimized. However, Jennifer Jones-Patulli, conflict management expert, challenges this perception. She suggests that conflict when engaged constructively, can be a powerful driver for innovation...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Organizational Conflict
In my many years of workplace mediation, negotiation, and conflict coaching, I’ve helped many people navigate dirty tactics from their counterparts. Emotional manipulation is one of the most difficult and most challenging. It’s difficult because it toys with the...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Organizational Conflict, Uncertainty
Leading in uncertainty is the ability to guide and direct a team or organization through unpredictable and ambiguous circumstances. Uncertainty can arise from various sources, such as economic shifts, political instability, technological disruptions, or global...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Organizational Conflict, Relationships
“It’s supposed to be uncomfortable,” my coach told me. “That’s how you build resilience. Work with the tension during each training session,” she continued. As I pant and sweat, I realize my discomfort has a purpose. I am working on getting faster and stronger....
by Productive Conflict | Facilitated Negotiation Case Study, Leadership, Organizational Conflict, Performance Issues
How do you make organizational conflict work for you? In the 1920s, Mary Parker Follett asked herself this very question. It’s a question we often ask ourselves today. Follett, a management theorist and social philosopher, proposed “integrative behavior” as the...
by Productive Conflict | Leadership, Relationships, Setting Boundaries
If you are like many of us working in fast-paced organizations, you most likely have no shortage of projects needing your attention. When the projects start piling up, you are faced with the difficult question of what to take on and what to put off. But the real...
by Productive Conflict | Diverse or Cross Functional Teams, Diversity, Leadership, Relationships
Diversity is everywhere. Yet, in our organizations we sometimes say we want diversity, while we fail to set conditions for it. There are many ways to define diversity in the workplace. For the purposes of this article I chose to draw on a simple and practical...
by Productive Conflict | Diverse or Cross Functional Teams, Leadership, Organizational Conflict, Performance Issues
Cross-functional teams in Government are nothing new. Over my years working within Government, and as a contractor for Government, I’ve heard them called many things such as “Swat Teams,” “Tiger Teams,” and “Special Project Units” just to name a few. Whatever you call...
by Productive Conflict | Anger, Facilitated Negotiation Case Study, Leadership, Organizational Conflict, Relationships
Establishing justice is important; there is no doubt about that. But to change a situation, one has to recognize the dynamics at play. “I feel afraid” This is what one of my clients, “H” said to me when I arrived to help restore the team...
