Working Well with People from the Other Side of the “Political Divide”: Here’s How to Do It
by www.Sedona.com
More and more in the United States it seems we’re divided along partisan lines, especially during an election year like this one. Under ideal circumstances this can spark a lively debate and maybe even an exchange of ideas, but if the differing of opinions happens in the office (particularly if you didn’t ASK for the opinion in the first place) it can have a negative impact on your professional relationships.
“Many people have strong political opinions and these opinions are often taken to heart and identified with as though our survival depends on others agreeing with us,” says Hale Dwoskin, CEO and director of training of Sedona Training Associates.
In a personal setting, you can easily shrug off such interactions and even choose to stop associating with the person who constantly bangs you over the head with their political opinions. Not so in the office, where you have no choice over who you must associate with.
You also have no control over what this person says to you, but that doesn’t mean you’re helpless. The key to preserving your professional relationship, and also to maintaining your right to your own opinions, lies in controlling your emotions.
“The first thing to remember is that politics is not personal to you,” Dwoskin says. “You can have strong political opinions and allow others to have their opinions as well as long as you remember that they are just points of view, not personal affronts to you. The more you can allow yourself to honor your own political beliefs and the beliefs of others, the more the political process can unfold naturally without having to cause strife at home or at work.”
It’s very important that you work to accept the people you work with, regardless of their political views. The more you project acceptance onto them, the less they will resist your ideas in return. This means that you may be able to have a meeting of the minds, where you can all accept each other’s political views as they are.
If you grow angry or upset when dealing with the people you work with, they have “won” in a sense. They have riled you up and you will be sending out feelings of anger to everyone around you. The natural response to anger is to resist it or retreat from it, which means that not only has your point not been made, but you may have pushed people further away from it (and from you personally, thus sabotaging your work relationship).
If you’re having a hard time accepting other’s political views, and not getting angry in response to them, The Sedona Method will show you how to release and let go of these feelings.
“One of the best ways to release on politics is to let go of wanting to defend, justify, explain or prove your point of view,” Dwoskin says. “This may be a stretch at first but if you are willing to do this you will find two things happening. First off you will relax inside and not feel like your survival depends on others agreeing with you. You will also find that people are much more open to hearing what you have to say.”
And it’s in open environments like this that the best work relationships are truly forged. In time, you may even find that your once heated political “arguments” turn into discussions focused on positive change.
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