Getting Along

June 13, 2022
“Too often, we just put up with difficult people,” admonishes Gallo (The HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict), a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review, in this empowering guide to handling interpersonal conflict at work. Gallo cites data showing that people are spending more and more time at work, and suggests workers ought to be putting effort into their relationships there. To help readers do so, she organizes her guidance around eight workplace archetypes—the insecure boss, the passive-aggressive peer, the political operator, the know-it-all, etc.—and offers advice for working with each of them, along with self-reflection questions and scripts. When dealing with “the pessimist,” for example, one can try saying “I wonder what another way of seeing this might be,” and for the “insecure boss,” starting sentences with “we” is a good call. For “the political operator” who sees everyone as competition, meanwhile, one can try to offer help or ask for advice: both disarm them. Her guiding principle—in times of conflict it’s best to focus on being “the adult in the room”—is well conveyed, and the strategies she shares land as realistic. This practical and empathetic guide to taking the high road is worth a look for workers lost in conflict.