Totally agree with civility. Its possible to disagree without being "disagreeable". A little humor keeps things light. Candor and frankness are not excuses for rudeness, or name calling, belittling, or ridiculing. Candor and frankness means telling it like it is and doing so with respects to anothers dignity.
How do I deal with someone who hits below the belt? Step one. Humorous quips aimed to make a person stop and think, and give them the opportunity to return to civility so we can continue to candidly discuss and frankly agree, or agree to disagree. Sometimes you just got to get folks a little off balance to give them time to stop and reflect. If I continue to get attacked. I do get firm, and lean more on logic. If the treatment continues, I go back to plan "A", with the humor, and give the individual the full opportunity once again to regain some perspective, but failing that, I give the person the opportunity to continue to publicly display the bad behavior. I have to work at being easy going, and I do use humor as a mechanism to contain myself and try to take the edge off a situation. Never been afraid to commit to an engagement, think shots over the bow are a fair way to forewarn, enjoy arm wrestling and a tough chess game, threats are challenges to be addressed in priority order, and always willing to stay the course. Teams I've been on were strong because we kept ourselves in line, while respecting the other guy, looking out for the other guy, working together to be successful, sharing info, and being willing to do whatever it takes to make broke things get fixed. Been there, done that, got the ribbon, and the return ticket.
Cheers! We're all in this together.
And no I don't stay up all night writing this stuff, just heading out and thought I'd check here before the rods went in the truck and the tackle box on the boat.
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