Conflict is part of life, and it is perhaps close to inevitable in the workplace. As you and your coworkers work toward developing new ideas and improving and marketing your products and services, clashes in personality, philosophy, and intent are not just expected, but almost inescapable.

The good news is that conflict does not have to be a negative experience - if dealt with correctly, conflict can be a springboard for sharing ideas, developing strategies, and working together successfully as a team.

The secret to successful leadership development is often pondered by young would-be executives just beginning to climb the ladder of success The climb up the corporate ladder is intimidating, lined with both ambition and peril

In explaining success, some people are quick to assert that "It's all in who you know." But how many act on that observation to get to know more people?

Relatively few, I believe. More often, this statement serves merely as an excuse to explain why the speaker hasn't accomplished more.

But should you seek out people just for what they can do for you in making you more successful? It doesn't sound like a commendable idea, does it?

What should you do instead? Let's look at lessons from how some leaders have approached starting and building relationships.

What do we really know about our leaders? We yearn to know enough to be confident in following them and, ideally, to emulate them. Perhaps you can name the leaders in the forefront of your industry or profession. Maybe you believe you could be more successful if you could be more like them, so you study their works, buy their books and perhaps even seek jobs in their organizations.

Let's face it

The Six Sigma methodology focuses on the drastic reduction of process variation and product defects. The result is processes which are very robust, which make very efficient use of resources and assets, and which result in highly efficient organizations. Achievement of Six Sigma process capability will result in processes which yield less than 3.4 defects per million opportunities.

Organizations who have adopted Six Sigma have learned that if they do not design for Six Sigma, they will not achieve it. DFSS is a rigorous approach to designing products and services and their enabling processes to ensure that they meet customer expectations. As the organization evolves in Six Sigma, we will learn more about the importance of DFSS, and apply the tools more frequently.

How an organization structures the people working on Six Sigma is a function of two things: first, by how the Group decides to focus its deployment (e.g., geographical considerations, degree of design, and engineering focus); second, by how the Group wants to integrate Six Sigma into its organization versus how it intends to ensure Six Sigma resources don't get lost in concerns of "business as usual" and fighting the latest fire.