Why Avoiding Conflict Is the Wrong Move

Some form of conflict is a normal part of our personal and professional lives. While it’s OK to never be completely comfortable with confrontation, being able to resolve issues effectively means accepting it as a healthy part of communicating with others.

Disagreeing provides deeper understanding and makes it easier to connect with our friends, partners, and co-workers.

Conflict avoidance is a type of people-pleasing behavior that typically arises from a deep rooted fear of upsetting others.

Many of these tendencies can be traced back to growing up in an environment that was dismissive or hypercritical:

• enduring uncomfortable situations instead of expressing issues openly
• denying an issue exists by ignoring it
• fear of disappointing others
• deliberately sidestepping conversations
• silently resenting unresolved issues.