Competent Jerks, Lovable Fools, and the Formation of Social Networks (2005)

• Within teams, team members can range in terms of their likability and their competence.
• Takeaway / Relevance: As managers, you will likely encounter all four types of individuals. Understand the benefits associated with the recommendations to manufacture liking, leverage the likeable, and work on the jerk.
• Homework Question #1: Out of the four categories (competent jerk, lovable star, incompetent jerk, lovable fool), where would you consider yourself?

How to Preempt Team Conflict (2016)

• There are five conversations for pre-empting and addressing team conflict, categorized as look, act, speak, think, and feel.
• Takeaway / Relevance: This connects material from other sessions, as managing conflict entails understanding others emotions, mindsets, and attributions including your own.
• Homework Question #2: What is the difference between good conflict and bad conflict?

When to Cooperate with Colleagues and When to Compete (2022)

• When managing team relationships, you can range on the degree to which you are agreeable/cooperative and the degree to which you are assertive. The five general strategies are: conflict, competition, maximum possible independence, cooperation, and collaboration.
• Takeaway / Relevance: Four of the approaches are all valid/valuable depending on the situation, while the maximum possible interdependence is not recommended.

Homework Question #3: Among the five options, what is your go-to style when trying to resolve or address a conflict?