Diplomatic Disagreement

Disagreeing with a person you report to or a client is a challenging process.

Six ideas to increase your success in disagreeing diplomatically include:

  1. Before you disagree, restate or paraphrase what you believe the other person has said to demonstrate your understanding.  Do this with a neutral tone and positive body language.
  2. Check for their agreement… if they don’t verbalize their agreement, are they nodding?
  3. If they don’t agree, keep restating until they do.   
  4. Acknowledge that you understand their position, feelings or thoughts by outlining what you believe is the value in the suggestion.  “I can see the value in…”
  5. Add however… do not use “but”.
  6. Then present your views, opinions or alternate suggestions.