In insurance sales and in client service, confrontation can be a sticking point.

Avoiding confrontation is a natural human tendency, but how we handle a confrontation can become a defining moment for a relationship or prevent a small problem from evolving into a disaster.

Here’s a personal example: One of my daughters helps to teach a dance class. She got invited to a concert, and had a month to let the primary instructor know that she couldn’t be there one night to help. My daughter went to three weeks of classes, and never said a word. The week of the concert, she went to a class, didn’t say anything, went home, and sent a text that she couldn’t attend. By then, it was too late to find a replacement, and we forced her to skip the concert to teach her class for the sake of her relationship with the dance school and the obvious lessons learned.