Authentic strength is born of meaningful experience, competence, wise action, and confidence in the existence of a higher power. Being aggressive, difficult, or overly adversarial is born of weakness. While the latter behaviors often pass for strength, in truth, they typically represent lack of preparation, understanding, and professional competence.
Authentic strength also requires courage—willingness to be afraid sometimes, admit it, and continue to move forward. Authentic strength requires accepting that mistakes will be made, honestly admitting to them when necessary, and then continuing to do your best. Courage is also necessary to change course when something isn’t working.
Above all, authentic strength requires “practice” in avoiding natural reactivity even when others do what we find to be objectionable. Reactivity seldom promotes the cause of dispute resolution. The ability to not deny, but modulate, understandably negative emotions as they arise is a valuable skill indeed.