Leaning Into Healthy Conflict: A Second Short Story

After writing back-to-back posts on what I believe is our most important topic for West Michigan leaders (Leaning Into Healthy Conflict), I shared a fictional story about the use of this conflict model last week . This week I’m going to share one more short story about conflict. This time it’s a real one, though…

Read More

Leaning Into Healthy Conflict: A Short Story

I recently wrote two back-to-back posts on what I believe is our most important topic for West Michigan leaders: Leaning Into Healthy Conflict. That topic is still on my mind, so I’m writing another piece on it today. However, this one’s a little different. This one is a short story in a conversation format. I…

Read More

Leaning Into Healthy Conflict, Part Two

Last week’s post was meant to remind you why leaning into healthy conflict is so important. Today’s post is meant to remind you of the model itself. The First Step: Begin the Conversation In the Leaning into Healthy Conflict model, there are two ways to begin a healthy conflict conversation. The first is when someone…

Read More

Leaning Into Healthy Conflict, Part One

LEAD 24/7 alums, do you recall the number one thing we wish leaders in West Michigan would do better? Yes, it’s being willing and able to lean into potential disagreements, or what we call leaning into healthy conflict. Today’s post is the first of two on the subject. This one is to remind you why…

Read More

Leadership Toolbox: Leaning into Healthy Conflict

Alternative Title: How a Lowly Brake Operator Changed Corporate Policy in One Conversation My father spent the last 10 years or so of his career working at a metal-press company in the Kalamazoo area. He was responsible for training new employees how to use the presses and working with them until they mastered the work.…

Read More

Leaning Into Healthy Conflict

When you think back on your year in LEAD 365, do you remember the number one thing I hoped all participants would learn? If LEAD 365 alums could only be better at one thing when compared to non-alums, do you remember what I hoped that one thing would be? My hope is that all LEAD…

Read More

The Great Eight: Trust

(This post was first published here on August 30, 2016.) As I write this post, there are 6,289 books on trust available under the Business and Money category on Amazon. What can we possibly add to all that wisdom? Maybe nothing. But please keep reading anyway. Trust is foundational to great teams, and so far—even in those…

Read More

Leaning Into Healthy Conflict: A Refresher

This post was first published on the Leading by DESIGN blog on June 27, 2016. In this post I will answer some questions that have come up from time to time about the model we use for engaging conflict. Do you remember the model? It’s six simple-to-understand-but-hard-to-do steps: Share your perspective—hopefully in thirty seconds or less Seek to understand…

Read More

Truth and Love

Today’s post was originally published on February 8, 2016.  Truth without love can be mean, and love without truth can be a lie. Today’s post is a review of a skill that I think it is the most important skill needed in West Michigan leaders. It is the willingness and ability to lean into healthy conflict. When…

Read More

A Desire to Understand

In last week’s post, I referred to a simple comment from a client in a coaching session as we talked about the concept of “seeking to understand”—a term coined by Stephen Covey and a critical piece of our Leaning Into Healthy Conflict model. The comment he made went along these lines: “I’m surprised you don’t…

Read More