TURN CONFLICT INTO COLLABORATION by Doris Helge, Ph.D.

TAKE YOUR TURN FIRST

Have you been wishing a "difficult person" would change so your work would be more enjoyable? If you’ve been tiptoeing around as if you were walking on eggshells, remember broken eggs make wonderful omelets. Decide what you need and take a firm stand. Even if you have been afraid to champion your own cause in the past, your new level of self-respect will eventually be mirrored back to you during your interactions with others.

Transform yourself instead of attempting to reinvent other people. Rather than focusing on what you think the other person did wrong, direct your attention to your own actions. You are powerless to alter someone else's behavior, but you are totally in control of your own performance. Just determine one simple way you can act differently in the future. Then you will have the power to stop co-creating the same frustrating situations over and over.

When you are tempted to make statements such as, "How dare they do that to me!", ask yourself thought-provoking questions. Begin with, "What can I learn from this situation that I wouldn't learn otherwise?" or "How did I contribute to this problem?"

MEET YOUR NEEDS

Click here to read the rest of this article.