September 23, 2020
1 Leadership Thought
Nobody likes to work in a toxic environment. It breaks trust, reduces productivity, and just makes work a lot less enjoyable. The problem is that toxicity comes when there’s already a poison that’s seeped in, and you have to do surgery to get it out.
Typically, this means someone gets fired.
The solution is the one thing that will earn you respect from your teammates — the ability to de-escalate tension. Too often, we get fearful of conflict for these reasons:
We let our ego drive a desire to control what people think of us
We hope it will just dissolve and go away on its own
There isn’t a single person out there that enjoys elevating drama in a workplace. Here are the top three ways you can de-escalate tension and conflict before it reaches a toxic level:
Listen to learn: “Give up the idea that you know what just happened. Too often in a conflict conversation, we think we know everything about the other person’s situation and make judgments off our assumptions.” (Share this on Twitter) Slow down. Give up your assumptions. Ask questions aimed at learning.
Own your mistakes: Acknowledge any mistakes you have made. It’s hard to not forgive someone refuses to play the victim and is willing to own their part. See it as an opportunity to grow instead of a wound to your identity.
Clear up confusion: Step back and define success. The top reason why confusion and conflict happens in the workplace is because people assume different priorities on measures that are actually all meaningful to success. If you can zoom out and agree on your purpose and goal in the conversation, your chances of peaceful resolution skyrocket.
At the end of the day, you need to be able to foresee toxicity and cut it at the root before it happens. Do this by de-escalating tension so that your team can continue to enjoy working together.
1 Resource
Jim Collins on leadership character:
"In contrast to the very I-centric style of the [typical] leaders, we were struck by how the good-to-great leaders didn't talk about themselves. During interviews with the good-to-great leaders, they'd talk about the company and the contributions of other executives as long as we'd like but would deflect discussion about their own contributions...It wasn't just false modesty. Those who worked with or wrote about the good-to-great leaders continually used words like quiet, humble, modest, reserved, gracious, mild-mannered, self-effacing, understated; and so forth."
Source: #1 Bestseller — Good to Great
1 Question
What gut-reaction of yours will change for the better if you silence your ego?