When I began my career as an internal management and leadership consultant at a Fortune 25 company in the mid-1970s, the one flaw that my manager saw in both my interpersonal interactions and my facilitation work was my inability to effectively manage conflict. My interest in interpersonal and organizational influencing had led me to be fairly skillful in those areas—or so I thought. When my attempts at influencing were unsuccessful and conflict resulted, it became clear that my skill set left much room for development. Although I was better at managing conflict from a third-party perspective than from a personally involved circumstance, both situations called for more expertise. With my manager’s wisdom, I was placed on a team with four experts in conflict resolution. We were given eighteen months to further research the discipline of conflict resolution, create a training workshop based on key learnings, and apply our learnings as internal consultants throughout the organization. I was hooked! As someone whose career and personal life could be hindered by the inability to productively manage conflict, the lessons I learned and successfully applied changed the vector of my future success.
I have worked in the areas of influence and conflict for almost forty years. During that time I have had the good fortune to train thousands of individuals and act as a consultant to a myriad of organizations in seventeen countries.
∼Harold Scharlatt, Greensboro, NC