john bailie, PHD
Faith. Life. leadership.

It’s tempting to believe that conflict in relationships is a complicated topic. Complicated is actually easy. A complicated problem...

There’s a long Irish tradition of never letting the truth get in the way of a good story. In that spirit, here’s one of my favorite...

When I saw the large knife clipped inside his waistband, my first feeling wasn’t fear. It was disappointment. I was walking up the...

When in doubt about whether to share what’s on your mind or engage a tough situation, its usually best to lean towards taking the risk....

On September 11, 2001, I was working as a counselor for adjudicated and at-risk youth at a private school in southeastern Pennsylvania;...

I love monster movies. The bigger and meaner the monster, the better the movie. Alien. Predator. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. But when...

Sometimes doing something “close” to right isn’t good enough. As a father of four I find myself increasingly making use of dad-sayings...

Happiness is a feeling. Cheerfulness is a choice… and a weapon. By cheerfulness, I don’t mean schmaltzy niceties and fake smiles. Real...

I share this story with great trepidation; not only because of its scatological nature, but because I fear it might leave my valued...

Marvin was the best street fighter I’ve ever seen. The crazy thing is, you would never pick him out of a crowd as the top slugger. In...

Managing is about overseeing processes, plans, and systems. It’s about keeping things, often created by others, running. Leading is about...

What do you do when your organization asks you to do something unethical? A Leading Conflict subscriber recently posed this question to...

See the picture above? That’s not a listening stance. But it might be what you look like when people try to give you feedback. One the...

In How to Take a Punch at Work I talked about my love of boxing and one of my all-time favorite boxers, Micky Ward. As I said in the...

Empathy is overrated. I know this is heresy. Before you light your torch and grab your pitchfork, hear me out. We live in a world...

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ve likely realized that I’m a boxing fan. When you like a sport as much as I like...

Most of what passes for conflict management/resolution wisdom and education is far too cautious, avoidant, and frankly fails to address...

To most boxing fans, Muhammad Ali is the undisputed G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time). For sure, he was a great boxer. But he won most of...

Contrary to what you might think, you need more fights at work – not fewer. Conflict is good. Conflict exposes our needs, desires,...

In my previous article, Conflict: Love It and Lead It, I said: The highest performing groups learn that they need group members who are...