Productive Conflict – Sabotage

Sabotage feels like someone strategically placing banana peels in your path to success and standing back to watch you slip. Turning to the Everything DiSC® Productive Conflict Reference Guide on sabotage, it reads:

“Sabotage is about making sure someone else fails. It can be social in nature (e.g., lying, spreading rumors) or can actually involve physical tampering. Sometimes we choose this extreme path when we lack the power to truly confront the other person, and sometimes it’s simply because we want to express our anger without a direct clash. Either way, there is usually a satisfaction in seeing the other person fail. Ultimately, sabotage usually requires us to suspend our normal understanding of right and wrong so that we can rationalize a behavior that, under normal circumstances, we would find reprehensible. Ask yourself: What personal morals am I sacrificing?”

There is enough room in this world for everyone to succeed. Why then are so many people more concerned about someone else failing than they even are about their own win? There is no place for sabotage, especially in the workplace. Have you ever endured this harmful behavior? I have. One example was email bombardment, many being the same email forwarded multiple times and then even more emails shortly after I was asked if I had gotten to the previous emails yet. WOW is all I can say. It felt like trying to drink water from a fire hose. I have also had reports that I prepared changed without consent or even informing me. Physical tampering, or any other type of sabotage, cannot be tolerated for a business to run smoothly, congenially, and profitably.

To view the previous blogs in this Productive Conflict series, click the links below:

Arguing

Belittling

Caving In

Defensiveness

Dismissing Opinions

Drama

Exaggerating

Exclusion

Productive Conflict – Finger-Pointing (hrs-mt.com)

Productive Conflict – Gossiping (hrs-mt.com)

Productive Conflict – Hypercriticism (hrs-mt.com)

Productive Conflict – Overpowering (hrs-mt.com)

Productive Conflict – Passive-Aggressive (hrs-mt.com)

Productive Conflict – Revenge (hrs-mt.com)

You can find more information including a video on Everything DiSC® Productive Conflict here: HR Solutions | Everything DiSC Solution | Personality Assessments and Training (hrs-mt.com)

Contact me if your organization is struggling with conflict so we can discuss how we can be of help to you. HR Solutions | Contact Us (hrs-mt.com)