Eventually heroes will burn out and crash, usually suddenly. Before they do, however, they have damaged those around them as a result of constant work at a red-line level and in a crisis mode. There are very capable people in organizations who avoid conflict and disagreement of any kind at any cost. They fear that conflict will get out of control and result in some sort of organizational meltdown. These peacekeepers labor under the mistaken notion that they are being sensitive to feelings, but they are actually suppressing feelings.
Most mature people understand that proper organizational conflict serves a useful purpose.
The cure for peacekeepers is to desensitize them to healthy conflict so they can handle rather than avoid it. There is a little bit of some of these behaviors in many of us, but there is a point where too much becomes injurious to one's career. Dalton Brannen is a senior professional in human resources and a professor of management in the College of Business Administration at Augusta State University. The Augusta Chronicle . All rights reserved.