confrontation is hard

I am horrible at confrontation. Partly, i think, it's my pride.

Today that reality bit me hard. There was a new lady who is taking over for one of the chapters that I work with. From all accounts she is an amazing lady who does her job well, so even though I will definitely miss the guy who I've worked with for the last couple of years I was looking forward to how things would go with the new lady.

Our meeting started off with a bit of bad news about an account and it was all down hill from there. She made a demand that I thought was unnecessary and she couldn't figure out the problem I had with it. I stated my case (probably a bit too strongly) and then she asked me a question. I began to answer when I was interrupted (this is where I began to really lose it)and instead of listening I forced the finish. Why do I have to force the finish? I'm such an arrogant____________! Anyway, I felt as though she was trying to belittle me and I said so and the meeting was out of hand for about 5 minutes. I tried to make it right by saying something about how it wasn't anything I had against them, and it came out a bit different, and now I've started off on the wrong foot with someone who I will be working with for the foreseeable future.

I honestly think that we were all in the wrong in the meeting. I know that each of us should have spoken less and listened more. I know that I wasn't the only one who handled it improperly, in fact, I don't think that I started the issues...I was the only one who could control what I did, though. I was the only one who could stop what I had to say and listen to what they had to say. I was the only one who could have changed my reactions to the appropriate actions and settled the disagreement from their point of view.

I am not good at confrontation. Mostly, I think, it's my pride.