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Tim Dawkins's avatar

"It doesn’t matter how obnoxious or difficult they are being. It doesn’t matter if you agree with them or their behaviour: you still just treat them with respect. Period."

I think this is one of the hardest challenges of leadership. I have both excelled and failed spectacularly at this, and I can say that the momentary exhilaration I felt when matching someone's disrespectful energy quickly turned into regret overall. A challenge for sure!

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Sue Mann's avatar

Hell yes. It IS hugely challenging…and the mark of a really mature and self-aware leader when they can catch themselves, self-regulate, apologize, backtrack or whatever. It’s soooo tempting to match disrespect with disrespect. And…all it does is escalate the disrespect. Sigh. Us humans. We can be so darn tricksy!

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