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When an Argument Gets Too Heated, Here’s What to Say
- Liane Davey
Redirect the conversation without looking like a jerk.
I recently stood in front of an executive team, allowing their unproductive to-ing and fro-ing to continue a little longer. It was a gold mine of examples I could use to teach them how not to have conflict. Within 10 minutes, they’d managed to take a routine issue and turn it into an all-out row, with yelling and swearing and more than a few hurt feelings and bruised egos. What they had failed to do was get to the root of the problem and get aligned around what they were going to do about it.
- LD Liane Davey is a team effectiveness advisor and professional speaker . She is the author of The Good Fight , You First , and co-author of Leadership Solutions . Share your comments and questions with her on Twitter at @LianeDavey .
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When an Argument Gets Too Heated, Here’s What to Say. I recently stood in front of an executive team, allowing their unproductive to-ing and fro-ing to continue a little longer. It was a gold ...
How to de-escalate an argument. If you notice a conversation is turning into a heated argument, here are four things you can do to try and get the conversation back on track. 1. Take a breath … or two. Once you realize the conversation is getting intense, take a deep breath to calm yourself. Take a second to collect yourself so you don’t ...