Conflict Resolution 201: How to Stand up for Yourself Without Starting a Fight

After the success of our last blog, “Conflict Resolution 101: What You Can Learn From Tom and Katie,” we decided to post a follow up blog.

This time we’re tackling how to stand up for yourself without starting a fight at the office. As we mentioned in our previous blog, every business has conflict. That’s what happens when you have people with different personalities and from different backgrounds all forced to share a small space and actually (gasp) work together!

As long as people are individuals there will be the potential for conflict. That’s the first thing to learn about conflict. It isn’t wrong or bad; it’s just part of being a person in contact with other people.

There comes a time when you have to stand up for yourself in a conflict. That is why today, we’re bringing you, “Conflict Resolution 201: How To Stand Up For Yourself Without Starting A Fight.”

Would you consider yourself assertive? Do you manage conflict without aggression, keeping the criminal lawyers out of the situation? Or would you rather not handle conflict at all?

Many of us run the opposite direction when conflict arises. Unfortunately, this isn’t healthy either, leading to strained relationships, unproductive work environments, and extreme stress. If you’re the type that bottles your true feelings to avoid conflict, you could also tend toward aggressive behavior when you finally can’t take it anymore. This is where trouble takes over.

“When deciding whether it is necessary to stand up for yourself or confront a situation, here are two questions to ask yourself: 1. Is this issue important enough for me to invest time and energy? 2. Will this relationship (work or personal) suffer if this issue is not resolved? If the issue is important enough to invest time and energy, resolve the situation with one goal in mind — to prevent it from happening again,” advises Dr. Shambra Mulder.