SENGinar - Gifted Adults and Conflict: How to Defuse Drama

Gifted adults often have deep values, passionate commitment, emotional sensitivity, and lots of ideas. Disagreements can be intense. Given the speed at which gifted adults process the world, escalation can happen explosively. Groups of gifted adults are often high drama communities.

Gifted adults benefit when they learn how to manage disagreements well and deescalate conflicts without sacrificing their sense of integrity and commitment.

When gifted adults disagree about things they care deeply about, conflicts can get ugly fast if not handled well. The combination of passion and speed can escalate a simple misunderstanding to a ruptured relationship. 

Gifted adults may also have a history of bad experiences working in groups where their ideas were not understood or other people couldn’t keep up with them. In groups and teams, they may be used to having to do all the work themselves or accepting work that doesn't meet their standards. As a result, they may have difficulty trusting group processes.

Handling conflict and other emotionally-charged conversations at the speed of gifted requires advanced communication skills. 

Kate Arms will present the three key elements of handling hard conversations well, the four ways things go off the rails and how to recover, and tips on how to approach developing new conflict-management skills.

About the Presenter:

Kate Arms, J.D., CPCC, PCC, is a leadership and life coach at Signal Fire Coaching, writer, and teacher. As a coach, she specializes in leadership development; skills development for having emotionally-charged, high-stakes conversations; and helping gifted, sensitive, and creative people harness their many passions and sensitivities and use that energy to thrive. She is the author of L.I.F.T.: A Coach Approach to Parenting, The Extreme Resilience Toolkit, and Side by Side: A Model for Healthy Relationships. She is the parent of four gifted kids, three of whom are twice-exceptional and a different three of whom are triplets.