In my experience, leadership, power dynamics, and conflict resolution are aspects that are highly influential and prominent in every society. Therefore, they affect practically every element of a person’s life. In my experience, leadership and power dynamics come from studying and working. While thinking about the connections that I have observed and experienced, I figured out something unexpected for myself. The thing that interested me the most in my observation is that these factors’ influence can be practically invisible, given how accustomed to them we are at this point. We accept the leadership of our employers or teachers and easily fall into power dynamics with these figures. We have managed to become adapted to conflict, taking disagreements as a natural part of a working environment. Perhaps, it is the acceptance of these elements that allows me to see conflict outside of the professional environment as not necessarily harmful. For example, recently, I have been in a big disagreement with my friend. It left me feeling sad and disappointed with myself and my friend. However, I found myself being upset not with the fact that we disagreed, but rather that our conflict became personal and hostile.
A mindful approach is something to consider when dealing with conflict and power dynamics. Sometimes, power disbalance of any kind can be overbearing, and although I have become accustomed to it, a little help in this department would be useful. Today’s world is filled with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, and using mindfulness is a way to reduce these factors (Levey & Levey, 2019). One of the aspects of mindfulness is to be more conscious and present, so during conflict or while feeling overwhelmed with power disbalance, I could have focused more on my surroundings. This would have allowed me to be warier of the consequences of my actions and make me more receptive to feedback.
Reference
Levey, J., & Levey, M. (2019). Mindful leadership for personal and organisational resilience. Clinical Radiology, 74(10), 739–745.