It is important to operate from a win:win perspective when approaching conversations with prickly personalities.

It is tempting to (accidentally) adopt a "I win:you lose or I lose:you win" mindset. We don't normally go into these conversations aiming to come out the loser or the winner, it's just that when the prickly personality triggers us we act on default which could mean either passively turning away or aggressively lashing out (or an interesting mix of both).

The ability to stand your ground and assert your rights, without making the other person feel trampled on, requires the 4 C's

- Courage to step out of your comfort zone

- Curiosity to identify what might be happening under the surface

- Compassion both for yourself and the other person and

- Composure to keep the pesky lizard brain in check if you get into the fight, flight, freeze zone.

If this is something you're interested in learning more about, I will be holding a Difficult Conversations Course soonish, register your interest here - http://ow.ly/hhN050BHhzR