I’m lucky that none of my direct clients try to “motivate” their team members through fear—or at least, not intentionally. Many employees experience some level of fear just from being part of a power hierarchy... Continue reading
How can you decide when and how to get involved in a work conflict? Even if right is on your side, and you have a high enough level of hierarchical power, two assessments will help... Continue reading
This post originally appeared on Forbes. Sometimes you just can’t resolve a conflict completely, even if it’s a righteous one. Maybe your boss refuses to cough up the resources you need for your people. Or... Continue reading
It can be quite startling to recognize how often leaders and other people with authority and status behave ineffectively. Their difficulties can be interpersonal, as when a leader shows favoritism to specific individuals or groups... Continue reading
After months of working together, Steve really thought he and his boss, Mitch, had come to an understanding: Mitch would focus on strategy and marketing while Steve would handle day-to-day operations and virtually all communication... Continue reading
[Please note: Some examples of profanity are used in this piece.] Have you ever worked in a place where people swear a lot? Sometimes a senior leader has a habit of profanity, or it could... Continue reading
We bring a lot of mental and emotional “stuff” to our conflicts—things that we do without thinking about them consciously. I’ve thought a lot about this “unattended baggage” since my wonderful chat with Richard Atherton,... Continue reading
I say this to clients all the time: Bad structures and bad systems break good people. And broken people break others. But while we may notice when a person behaves badly, we don’t always perceive... Continue reading
This post originally appeared on Forbes. So much of work can feel transactional, cold, even mind-numbing. But it doesn’t have to be that way. As Dr. Robert Waldinger, professor of psychiatry, director of the Harvard Study of... Continue reading
In our workplace culture, most of us have been trained—or at least prefer—to believe that if we don’t hear any disagreement, there probably isn’t any. And we think that’s a good thing! Most of us... Continue reading
Want help coping with conflict?
Download your free Field Guide to help you identify and resolve interpersonal conflicts. You’ll also get Liz’s monthly Workplace Wisdom emails from which you can unsubscribe at any time.