Great leaders view conflict as a positive. They value the art of passionately debating, challenging each person’s perspectives and assumptions, and wrestling with all the angles of a difficult situation. 

Great leaders don’t view conflict as personal, it doesn’t involve judging one another’s ideas and it doesn’t leave a lingering resentment of others, or negative energy. 

How about you? How do you view conflict at work?

I walked into the coffee shop. It was packed. And loud. I scanned the room looking for my client. I wondered how we were going to be able to hear one another. Then it came. A deep, commanding shout from the back of the cafe, “Here!” Raising his arm. Index finger pointing to the ceiling. Strong. Decisive. He might as well have screamed: “I’m number 1!”