Josh's Weekly Insights - February 25, 2026

“Peace is not an absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.”

-Ronald Reagan

Working with leaders the other day, we were discussing how to handle conflict. However, the first message we unpacked was what qualifies as healthy conflict versus unhealthy conflict. 

Healthy conflict is an important sign of a high functioning organization. It means that team members are capable of having disagreements and differences of opinion without feeling like they will be ignored or belittled for their perspective. This is important because if an organization or leader never hears conflict on their team, it doesn’t mean there is no conflict but that team members are afraid to share their concerns. 

Have you ever worked on a project where things didn’t go well? Then after it fails someone shares that they saw the issue,

but nobody listened. Feedback is a critical part of the development process for any new initiative. It helps improve our outcomes because the first attempt is rarely ever perfect. 

However, conflict can also be unhealthy. When we focus solely on winning instead of creating the best outcome available, then we are creating unhealthy conflict.

My encouragement for this week is to identify where you are participating in healthy conflict. How can you use healthy conflict to strengthen relationships, create more positive opportunities, and feel valued for what you bring to the team?

Now get out there and crush your week!