Fighting a Good Fight

We’ve all been in the situation. Deadlines are looming, your blood pressure is rising and a civil war is about to erupt at the office. Workplace disagreements are not at all uncommon, but it’s to your advantage to learn how to productively argue your case and when it is more beneficial to quietly concede.

“When you argue over every confrontation, you will be perceived as a troublemaker, but if you challenge only those issues that are truly important to you, your opinions and disagreement will bear more weight and people will listen.”

So where do you draw the line? How do you determine whether your case is worth arguing or if you should let it go? One of the hardest things we, as humans, have to face is admitting we are wrong. And even if we don’t believe we are wrong, it might still be more beneficial to the organization if we can accept the given fact that you win some, you lose some. However, the main goal here is to chose our battles wisely and put our efforts toward the ones that really matter. For instance, you might hold your ground when the issue involves personal integrity or the betterment of the organization, but be less stringent when the outcome, one way or another, is not as important to you.

Read the full article by Kate Lorenz at CareerBuilder.com to learn how to distinguish which fights are the good fights.

Posted by Shelly Paul, Career Management Coordinator, The H.S. Group