Conflict between people in our cities, states, and nation seems to be escalating. Polarizing Facebook posts, aggressive exchanges on Twitter, heated exchanged on between prognosticators on cable news programs, increasing lack of regard for law and law enforcement personnel – are either on the rise or else the media has simply focused more attention on such matters.
Anywhere you slice our society, conflict is on the rise. We live in a day when tolerance is preached as absolute by people who on both sides are absolutely. Everywhere we turn we observe tension and conflict between people and between people in groups.
So, what is to be done?
As a student of leadership, it has been a long-term personal goal to learn effective conflict-resolution skills. And now, more than ever, these skills are becoming a valuable commodity; conflict resolution has become a central requirement for effective leadership.
Therefore, over the next few weeks I will explore conflict resolution based specifically on the nature of the conflict itself. I will start out by discussing the reality that conflict cannot be resolved when it is blindly ignored – in other words, it won’t generally “just go away;” it must rather be confronted. Then we will move on to review conflict based on the nature of the issue in dispute.
What we will find is that resolving conflict requires initiative and, no matter what the core issue might be, such initiative will always require the Courage to Lead.
Photo Credit: Priscilla Du Preez