How to Avoid Conflicts in the Office

Management Expert Michael LeBoeuf, in his book Working Smart: How to Accomplish More in Half the Time, shares the following ideas:

1. Make the effort to be an effective communicator. Understand the true meaning of what people say.
2. Be open. When you are receptive to the opinion and feelings of others, they will not be defensive.
3. Present critisms in a spirit of kindness, helpfullness and tact. Focus on the behavior that needs correcting, not the person.
4. Be assertive, not aggressive.
5. Mind your own business.
6. Live and let live. One man's right ends where another man's nose begins.
7. Keep your cool. Delay an explosive emotion.
8. Remember that arguingfor the sake of arguing is a needless waste of time.
9. Don't belittle or ridicule another person's achievements.
10. Don't be a prophet of gloom and doom.
11. If a major ongoing, unavoidable conflict hinders your work or someone else's, discuss it with those involved.
12. To work less and accomplish more, remember this: It is easier to work with people than to work against them.

Moneysaver Magazine
March 1994