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Direct Energy CIO Kumud Kalia on how to deal with mounting peer dissension
Q: I'm getting into more conflicts than usual with my business peers. What's going on?
When the economy isshrinking and there is competition for resources, tough decisions will result in more tough conversations, You have to cut budgets, people and projects. Any one of those is going to pis5 people off.They will see you as the person forcing this change on them, downsizing thejrorganization or hindering their ability to generate revenue. In these situations, you need to seek common ground and treatthe other party with respect. Don't present things as a person to participate in the decision on how to get to the end goal. But I was told to freeze everything and not to launch anything new. I thoughthe got the same message as me, which he did, but he thought it didn't apply to him. What I didn't understand was that he was trying to gain new revenues to preserve jobs within his team, He nevertook the time to explain that to me; I just assumed he was stubbornly not on board, If he had articulated his reasoning, t could have helped him take that to others who might have ruled in his favor. Inthe end, he just got smacked by his boss. He was guilty of not explaining his hidden agenda, and I was guilty of being too committed to a course of action to consider alternatives. It's something Istiii think about insimilarsituations.

Q: How can I deal with someone who I'm butting heads with now?
Don't seek to be the winner. If there is a winner, then there is also a loser, which encouragesturf battles and leads to more dysfunction. Try to understand why the other person is thwarting you. What do they want, and can you help them achieve their goal while you achieve yours? I once fellout with a colleague, and it was a relationship! never got the chance to repair because I left the company a few months later. It was just after the dotcom bust, and the conditions and resulting...