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Originally Posted by Liara Covert  I also like the article John. My question to you would be what strategies would you use to approach people who appear to be unwilling to compromise, unwilling to negotiate, and who also prove themselves to be rather underhanded?  |
Liara, these strategies were developed in a work environment -- and believe me, the work world sees just as many difficult personalities as the personal world.
I've run into project sponsors who refused to budge for what I suspected to be alterior motives. I've seen cliques who wanted to do their own thing in spite of clear, supported direction. I've seen personality conflicts, bad tempers, and personal issues.
And I still think the first step is making an attempt to truly understand the point of view of the person on the other end of the argument. Often what we assume to be selfishness on the part of our opponent is just a different set of priorities or a different way of looking at the world.
Of course, it is possible that you may find that a person's point of view cannot be reconciled with your own (or even understood except in a selfish context), but it's important to arrive at that conclusion after a concerted effort to understand.
In my experience, 95% of the people in the world will be fair if you listen to them and give them a fair shot to be understood. The remaining 5% are a challenge for us all.