What’s The Difference Between Reacting And Responding To Conflict?

Imagine this: Your phone rings. It’s a client you’ve been working with on a really big project. The person on the other end is furious. They cannot believe the work that you’ve done has not hit the mark of what was agreed, and the impact that is now having on their clients and their work is astronomical. They are pissed. What do you do? And what do you feel?

Most people in this situation start to feel the hairs on the back of their neck stand up, sweating in their hands, they might start to feel anger or confusion. The last thing people tell me is that they feel in control. So today I wanted to share with you about conflict negotiation and how to feel more in control.

You can listen here to Episode #23 on my Level Up Leadership Podcast – Conflict Negotiation – how to feel more in control

So what is the difference between Reacting and Responding to conflict? And how do you become calmer in a situation to clear your mind and feel better equipped to handle anything that comes your way?

The reason that we React is that we are hardwired that way. We are built for survival when we feel under stress or pressure, our body reacts to keep us alive. Now, there are a lot of things that we have emotional reactions to, that we don’t need to. So this is all about how can you build your mindset to be able to choose your Response.

I’m sure we can all think of a situation where you Reacted, and perhaps took it a little bit out of proportion.

So when there is a situation or some stimulus that normally you would react to immediately without thinking about, here are a couple of tips on creating that space between your stimulus and your response.

If you’ve ever thought of negotiation and conflict resolution, as something you needed to armor up for, I hope today, I might have challenged that thinking a little bit and got you to think more about the mindset you have going into a negotiation, versus the particular tools that you can defend yourself with or attack the other party first with.

I hope you found this useful, as always I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Until next time,

Kate