Leadership Blog #8

1. Of course one of my favorite church leaders, along with many others is our Beloved Prophet, Thomas S. Monson. While researching conflict resolution, I found what he has said on it. One thing that I loved that he touches on is forgiveness. He says in order to solve conflicts, you need to be able to forgive others, and not be so quick to take offense. I think this is extremely important especially in positive conflict that we do not let all of our actions be governed by emotion, but that we understand all sides of the issue, be quick to forgive, and slower when taking offense.

Another interesting conflict resolution that Thomas S. Monson conveys is peace. He does not talk about peace of oneself, but he talks about having the peace as promised of God. He states that, "peace after the manner of God will prevail". Trying to sek for peace in our hearts and in our lives will help us ve more able to settle conflict peacefully, and the way God would have us settle them. It also helps restrain any negative conflict.

2. I think that destructive conflict differs from constructive conflict in that it can be more emotionally attached, that people are not willing to see all points of view and are not willing to collaborate together. In constructive conflict, the people are each benefitting and growing better together because of the conflict and are not being torn down by a conflict.

3. I think that sometimes I embrace good conflict, and that sometimes I evade it. I definitely have had to learn to embrace it more though. I am completely have the "accommodation" approach when it comes to managing conflict. I am a people pleaser, and often just do not like getting in conflict and would rather just make the other person happy even if I sometimes am left unhappy. This is something that has helped me a lot in avoiding destructive conflict; however, it often makes me avoid good, constructive conflict. I think I can become better by sharing more of how I feel with others on certain things and not just keep quiet and act like all is well. I think also I need to take more time to allow for constructive conflict. I often just want to skip right to a solution and not have to worry about "conflicting" with someone else. However, I am getting better at it! This has truly helped me see the light as well in realizing that conflict is not always a bad thing and it helps relationships, teams, and you as an individual become better.

Thanks for the lesson! Enjoy:)

Emmaline