Beyond Dislike Building Positive Relationships with Challenging Colleagues ft. Hilary Bendon
Most of us don’t expect to go to work and like everyone.
But we also don’t usually have the interpersonal skills to deal with pesky personalities in a way that’s productive and respectful.
In this podcast, Elise Stevens speaks with conflict coach Hilary Bendon about how we can work effectively with people we dislike.
Hilary has tips on how to address those small annoyances as well as major grievances and move forward from a place of respect.
Points raised in this podcast:
- Work is a contract that means we will inevitably have to deal with people we dislike in a professional and respectful manner.
- Most people have not been taught healthy, productive ways to manage conflict.
- Many conflicts are not raised early enough because the parties involved fear they will have to address their own role in it.
- The best way to deal with conflict at work is usually to address it directly with the other party. When that doesn’t feel safe, management or HR can become involved.
- Listening builds better relationships than lecturing.
- Conflict affects our behaviour and, in turn, the people around us.
- We can only ever control our own behaviour and perspective.
- Focusing on our mental health outside of work will help protect our self-confidence and ensure we turn up to work each day with the best possible mindset.
About Hilary:
Five years ago, Hilary pivoted her focus to conflict resolution after 25 years in organisational and leadership development. She earned a Master of Dispute Resolution from the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University’s Caruso Law School in Malibu, California and a Master of Public Administration from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, which together prepared her well to launch into conflict resolution in the workplace.
Her company, HXB LLC, focuses on creating more productive and psychologically safe workplaces by resolving early-stage conflict among employees and leaders. Hilary has experience, also, as a special education teacher, realtor, and international aid worker. She has lived abroad in Italy, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Armenia, and she speaks Spanish and Italian fluently. Her company HXB LLC is the Peace Partner for small to medium sized businesses.
You can connect with Hilary on LinkedIn.