Conflict Avoidance or Political Correctness?
Today, I was given some feedback about my aggressive communication methods. I admit I can appear to be blunt, but that's how I like others to treat me too. I guess the Golden Rule of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" doesn't quite work when my preferences are different from the norm. As I reflect on this, I thought about my personality traits vs. some others. One of the personality psychology traits that I have always scored low on is Agreeableness, and it correlates negatively with Conflict Avoidance. Whenever I see conflict, I tend to surface it to talk about it instead of letting it fade as people's mood fluctuates away from it. Unfortunately, people (including my wife actually) get hurt and ignores me anyway. So not only the conflict doesn't get resolved, but people also look for other means to cope with it. Sometimes that involves talking behind my back about my behaviours. In the end, I achieve the opposite of my intentions. I'm