How could these two things possibly overlap you ask? I'll tell you! It's the COMMUNICATION! The way I communicate does not change much between my work environment and my home environment. While working in corrections, I have developed a very direct way of talking with people. It can be assertive at times, and it doesn't involve lots of unecessary details (you will hear me reference those details as "fluff"). I try to take a neutral mental stance most of the time. I don't let my emotions become immediately involved in conversations. This tends to make people more comfortable talking to you, because they see that you are not going to react extremely to what they are telling you. If you can communicate with a neutral tone, regardless of the other person being angry or upset or emotional, you are actually helping to bring that other person to a more neutral level. If you havn't tried this before, you absolutely have to! If you have a child who tends to have a bit of a hot temper, the last thing you should ever do if they are freaking out is to freak out yourself. I understand that this is bound to happen sometimes no matter how much self control you have! But if you can teach yourself to use a more gentle tone with someone who is angry, you may see amazing results that you never expected!
How to communicate with a neutral tone: Use a gentle, calm voice/no big gestures or aggresive movements/no signs of anger or irritation/no escalation
Best way to describe it: Act like you are bored with the conversation. You can still acknowledge their feelings by saying things like "I understand that you are angry, so what can we do to fix this?" Go on and give it a try! Once again, this works for parenting and the workplace!