HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strengthening Your Soft Skills (with bonus article "You Don't Need Just One Leadership Voice--You Need Many" by Amy Jen Su)

How to Navigate Conflict with a Coworker

by Amy Gallo

EARLY IN MY CAREER I took a job reporting to someone who had a reputation for being difficult. I’ll call her Elise. Plenty of people warned me that she would be hard to work with, but I thought I could handle it. I prided myself on being able to get along with anyone. I didn’t let people get under my skin. I could see the best in everyone.

Two months later I was ready to quit.

Elise worked long days and on weekends and expected her team to do the same. Her assumptions about what could get done in a day were wildly unreasonable. She often followed up at 8:30 a.m. on a request she’d made at 6:00 the night before. She disparaged my teammates in front of me, questioning their work ethic and ...