Making peace with your work situation

Last week we saw the most extraordinary thing: Ian Paisley (who has been a major hate figure in our house since I was a child) sitting down with Gerry Adams....and promptly getting together to tell Peter Hain to bugger off back to Westminister (albeit in more polite terms)...it seems almost unbelievable to me.

I was wondering what it would be like to make peace like that...sit down with someone whom I had been brought up to loathe and work with them. I'm sure some of you have had that situation. Frankly, the thought of it sticks in my throat...but if I could remember it was for a greater good and that it stopped the perpetuation of the situation....I reckon I could get over my revulsion...and I think it would be the idea of being a sort of firewall...stopping the situation continuing, that would be the main motivator.

I had a conversation last week with a woman who described how difficult she found working with her boss, how he was held in low esteem by certain sectors of the organisation she worked in...but when we looked at the situation...the only thing she could change was her own attitude. Perhaps look at his talents and gifts and work to change her own approach to him. Have you ever noticed that when you are willing to change your approach to a situation...that something magically shifts...even before you get a chance to try your new approach...

So why not try being kinder to that annoying git at work...