Have you ever seen someone’s name pop up in your inbox and immediately felt frustrated? Before you’ve even read their message, you already have a story about how the interaction will go. I’m joined by Amy Gallo, contributing editor at Harvard Business Review and author of Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone, Even Difficult People, to explore why work relationships can become so difficult and what we might be missing when we’re convinced the other person is the problem. From the conversations we avoid to the feedback that doesn’t land as expected, we explore the messy human dynamics leaders navigate every day. In this episode, we explore:

• Why certain people push our buttons
• What if we’re the difficult person?
• The fear of making a relationship worse
• Defensiveness, tears and the poker face when receiving feedback
• What a lack of disagreement might mean for your team
• How AI could be shaping our expectations of each other
• Why working across teams can bring a different set of tensions.

Watch the full conversation and consider the work relationship or conversation you might approach differently. Resources

• Amy Gallo’s website
• Amy Gallo’s LinkedIn
• Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People)
• HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict
• Thriving Leaders and Thriving Teams books
• Thriving Culture website