Makarios Consulting Blog

Tag: conflict

No Problem Too Big, No Problem Too Small

Picture, if you will, a business. The clients are well-satisfied: they are receiving a good product, good service, and good quality. Since all that is good, the business is healthy, correct? Not necessarily. Out of sight of the clients, unresolved relationship issues are working slow destruction day after day. Let’s go “under the hood” of… Continue reading No Problem Too Big, No Problem Too Small

Unhealthy conflict in the workplace. Image of two men yelling at each other.

Undoing Unhealthy Conflict

So, you’ve got unhealthy conflict in the workplace. You’re not alone. You’re not alone in having serious disagreements with colleagues or team members. You’re not alone when you candidly don’t know how or why things got to their current state of affairs. You’re not alone in feeling personally attacked … and perhaps in attacking the… Continue reading Undoing Unhealthy Conflict

toxic leadership

Toxicity Is Not Okay

Company offices can readily turn into interpersonal battlegrounds. Verbal grenades explode one after the other – undercutting, demeaning, belittling, attacking, insulting, and destroying team members. In consequence, work does not get done and forward progress stalls, damaging the business. How does this happen? Particularly when the people involved are capable, competent individuals? An antagonistic culture… Continue reading Toxicity Is Not Okay

Conflict: High-performing Teams Are Willing to Enter the Ring

When you think about a high-performing team, the first thing that comes to mind is probably not “This is a place where conflict happens.” Most people assume that the absence of conflict makes for a high-performing team. In a twist of irony, the opposite is actually the truth. Patrick Lencioni, in his book The Five… Continue reading Conflict: High-performing Teams Are Willing to Enter the Ring

Organizational Clarity Requires Candid Conversations

Achieving organizational clarity requires many leadership skills. The ability to have a candid conversation is one of the essentials. The need for candor was impressed upon me again recently when I (Rip) was working with a client to implement the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®). We had already put effort into thinking about how their business… Continue reading Organizational Clarity Requires Candid Conversations

You Don’t Always Have to Be the Conflict Referee

“Why do I always have to be the referee?” This is a question we have been asked many times by leaders. The complaint is voiced out of frustration: frustration that the leader’s team members cannot seem to resolve conflicts on their own. Every major dispute, minor disagreement, and even simple difference of opinion is escalated… Continue reading You Don’t Always Have to Be the Conflict Referee