Do you dare to tell people what you are standing for? It seems to me that a good number of people do not want to openly say what they stand for or where they stand on certain issues. If you use this "Teflon behavior" at work you make it challenging for your team/organization to make progress.
Maybe it's because you don't want to hurt someone's feelings, maybe it's because you want to wait for someone else's opinion to make sure you're not walking into a political minefield. Whatever the reason is for this behavior, for business purposes, I think we have to overcome it in order make progress. When we take a stand for our convictions we have to keep in mind that we respect other opinions. Standing respectfully for your convictions, without reverting to defensive or aggressive behavior, is an art. If it's done correctly it will allow an open and constructive discussion.
In addition to respect we have to stay open to adjust our convictions if we're confronted with better arguments.
The challenge I see, if convictions can't be expressed adequately in business situations, is that it is very challenging to have a meaningful discussion about business issues. If I don't tell you that I have a concern about a certain project task we won't discuss why I have that concern and hence we might end up with a less than optimal solution.
As long as it is not clear to others where we stand and why we stand there it is very hard to start a meaningful discussion. Make your team/organization move forward and have an opinion that can be adjusted.
