We have two highly dominant personalities on our executive team who frequently turn debate into personal attacks. How do you handle these intense behavioral conflicts when they flare up during our live session days?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

I do not allow personal attacks or destructive conflict to derail our session days. When high-dominance personalities clash, it is usually because they lack a common language to understand each other's communication styles or because they are fighting for control.

To manage this, we use the DiSC behavioral framework to establish objective self-awareness across the team. During our sessions, when tension starts to rise, I will actively call out the behavior and ground the discussion in their profiles.

For example, I will point out that a high-D style's directness is being perceived as aggression by others, or that a high-C style's analytical questioning is being interpreted as stonewalling. By depersonalizing the conflict, we can shift the focus back to the business issue at hand.

We will channel that intense energy directly into our IDS sessions. We will frame the disagreement around the issue, not the person. If a discussion becomes too heated, I will pause the room, restate the core issue, and demand that we focus purely on the facts and data.

My role is to maintain a safe, highly productive environment where healthy, passionate conflict is encouraged, but personal attacks are immediately shut down. We will build a culture of constructive debate that makes your team stronger.