Part of being in relationship with other people is being faced with opinions and viewpoints you disagree with. It’s easy to dismiss the way other people think and feel when you don’t think or feel the same way. It takes much more effort to understand and affirm people you disagree with.

The phrases brilliant people use to validate someone they don’t agree with are full of generosity, patience, and compassion. Brilliant people aim to be kind and understanding, even when their perspectives are wildly different from someone else’s. They focus on building respectful relationships, which are rooted in emotional validation, even with people they disagree with.

As Corinne Bendersky, Professor of Management and Organizations at the UCLA Anderson School of Management explains, "Negotiations 101 teaches us to find something that is valuable to our opponents yet not costly for us to concede in order to encourage concessions from our opponent."