The Angel of Truth always finds a way.

You know who is a master in the Business environment when it comes to Conflict Mastery?
Henry Kravis!

Henry is one of the Founders of KKR and who’s story is told in the movie Barbarians at the Gate

Guard Your Integrity With Your Life

Henry Kravis was a master at collaboration. Furthermore, this post will be about how a Good Man in my life personally challenged me as a fellow Entrepreneur. Motivating me to drive 19 hours driving time across country and spend countless hours developing a solution to a problem that could have meant certain failure but ended up making me look within myself and grow.

After consulting time and time again with a buddy who is a Big 4 Partner I finally had my A-Ha Moment! This post is all about the different personalities that you need to consider when a conflict or hard situation, or conversation needs to happen. Read carefully. The lesson’s in this post, most certainly will give you a formula to use so you can have the best chance at a predictable good outcomes. Especially when it seems someone is trying to compromise your integrity out of fear and passive behavior.

Watch Henry Kravis Movie – Barbarians at the Gate Movie – HERE

Ok Let’s get started, let’s say your evaluating a transaction for a Company and you meet resistance or a possible intractable challenge intended to prevent you from making the Transaction? Your team has prepared, the accountants, investment bankers, and Corporate Attorneys are all scratching their heads how to negotiate a Problem that looks like its likely to end the sell of the Company. But all of a sudden the one of the owners silently feels the transaction should not continue. And begins passive – aggressively not answering your emails. Won’t pick up the phone. And this leads to the entire transaction failing due to sabotage. What do you do????

• Let it go, and allow the person space to figure it out on their own?
• Do you fire off a email that is full of thoughts and beg the person to come see you?
• Do you go track them down and confront them?

Here’s how I was taught to smoothly handle bumps in the road like this during Transactions by a Big 4 Partner who was the Lead Advisor for Transactions in Tech World. My buddy is a Prince of a Man and I admire and love him like a brother for all his help and guidance. 100%

It’s time for me to pass on a little of His time honored personal guidance.

The Three types of Responses to Conflict in the Professional Space.

1. The Mule (STUBBORN CLOSED MINDED) There’s no way come HELL OF HIGH WATER I will ever allow Dat Dat Dat…!
2. The Avoider ( Avoids Difficult Conversations & Situations at all costs) If a problem develops? They run or say nothing.
3. The Accommodator ( Agree’s with whatever is being said on the other side of the table. Never adds a solution.)
4. The Compromiser (Starts off as a Accommodator, but when things seem too difficult? Will shift to a weaker or less comfortable position in a negotiation even if it harms their own position.)
5. The BEST Response is learned and is…..? “The COLLABORATOR!” (Unafraid of difficult conversations and situations, will not settle until all sides are moving forward in a positive direction. And can inject a discernment that is sensitive, or empathetic to the other side of the table. This is the Ideal method to resolving difficult or hard situations. HENRY KRAVIS and his Wife were fantastic and very talented at this method in the 1980’s.

All of this I learned from my Buddy who has advised, and taught me to be a better Collaborator. If you choose to be passive-aggressive in a hard conversation or a difficult situation? It’s likely you will have to compromise your Integrity and Faith for the other sides comfort. This is a NO GO FOR ME! It’s just not realistic to my personality. Id rather share the uncomfortable truth in a sensitive way than allow someone’s passive aggressive behavior to compromise my Faith, and Integrity. And so should you.

Corporate Attorneys are literally terrible negotiators. They literally do not use empathy. They use brut force and time to their advantage. And in the process damage a clients position, or future business prospects.

Choose who how you treat people wisely. Because playing petty power games with people will end very fast one day unexpectedly with a Proverbial knife in your back or a lost, or sabotaged Transaction.

I hope you learned something from this post. Study the Greats like Henry Kravis. And I promise you will become better and smarter when searching for collaborative answers and predictable outcomes.

GODSPEED!

JS