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Your manager has proposed an approach which you think will cause issues; you are aware of the risk, but no one else is raising any objections. Should you speak out or remain silent?

For people coming from cultures in which challenging a manager or a more senior colleague is regarded as being a challenge to authority, it can seem disrespectful or even dangerous to their careers to speak up. However, in many workplaces in Canada, the ability to give respectful disagreement is an indication that you are engaged, thinking critically, and helping the team.

The main issue isn't whether or not you disagree; it's the way in which you deal with the disagreement.

As Manoj Ananthanarayanan explains in Handling Workplace Conflict, the first thing to do is to remain calm and objective; when emotions take control, it is easy to concentrate on someone's personality, one's own ego, or how the disagreement has affected you.

Instead, separate the person from the problem by asking:

The time at which you choose to address someone also makes a difference since raising the matter in front of the team could embarrass them and thus make it less likely that a productive discussion will take place. In some cases, the better course of action is to give both people a chance to think it over and then deal with the issue privately.

It doesn't mean that you should ignore serious behaviour. If a conflict involves harassment, discrimination, repeated disrespect, or another issue that cannot be resolved directly, document what happened and consider using the appropriate workplace or human resources process.

WorkSpark’s one-page visual guide below helps you decide when and how to express a disagreement. It also includes a simple formula and practical phrases for sharing another perspective without turning the conversation into a fight.

Download the free workplace-conflict toolkit ⬇️