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| 2010, the year of The Ultimate Job™
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Does your Capital city have The Ultimate Job™? Does your company have The Ultimate Job™ ?
Are you an Ultimate Job applicant?
The Ultimate Job™ is a competition to find the best job, as voted by the public, in each major Australian city.
How It Works
Businesses in each capital city who feel they have the best permanent job will be able to submit their application to be short listed for The Ultimate Job™. Applicants will be invited, and encouraged, to apply for the short-listed jobs. |
| Excel in conflict resolution
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 Although most of us want smooth interpersonal interactions, disagreements and conflicts are part of any dynamic organization.
Not all conflict is negative. In some cases it should even be encouraged when discussion and debate can generate creative, innovative approaches to issues or decisions. Conflict is beneficial when the focus is on finding the best solution. However, conflict is unproductive when it fails to produce mutually satisfying solutions, or when it becomes personal. Resolving conflict doesn’t come easily to many people.
STEPS TO CONFLICT RESOLUTION
- Depersonalize the conflict. Catch yourself when you begin to fall into the trap of believing that the other person is deliberately trying to make a situation difficult.
- At the beginning of resolving differences or conflict, clearly state your desire to find a solution that will work for all involved.
- Build on areas of agreement before you address areas of difference.
- Remember to listen first and talk second. Ask open-ended questions to draw others out and to encourage them to talk about the conflict.
- Try to arrive at a common goal upon which to focus, and agree to work through areas of disagreement. In other words, don’t agree to an outcome that you will not support. State your reservations and talk with the other person until you can agree on a course of action.
- Press for understanding without implying criticism.
- Focus on common ground issues. Find a “win” for all affected parties, and avoid entrenched positions.
- Identify specific behaviours in concrete terms, and explain the tangible outcomes they have, so that the other person can more easily appreciate the nature of the difficulty.
- Rely on facts instead of judgments or inferences to help you avoid giving feedback that becomes personal.
- Have a goal in mind, a purpose for the discussion. Remember to put it in a sentence that attacks the problem, not the person.
WHEN THE BOSS SHOULD GET INVOLVED IN CONFLICT RESOLUTION
When direct reports are experiencing some issues with each other, the first rule is for the boss to stay out of the situation, if possible. Jumping in to fix things may work in the short term, but in the long term, it won’t solve the underlying issues. When one of the people involved approaches you and vents, first listen empathically. Once that person has finished explaining the situation, simply ask, “What would you like me to do with this information?” Usually the answer will be “Nothing.” However, if it isn’t, carefully weigh whether you should step in. Encourage the people to resolve things themselves.
Sometimes you just can’t stay out of a disagreement. When productivity starts to suffer or morale is compromised, something has to be done. If both of the people involved agree that they can’t work things out between themselves, the boss needs to get involved.
PRE-WORK STRATEGY
A beginning strategy is to have both people meet with you to discuss the plan for resolving their differences. Instead of hashing things out right then, invite the participants to fill out some pre-work. Ask each person involved in the disagreement to answer some questions before the actual meeting.
After the participants have answered these questions independently of each other, let them meet alone to see if they can resolve the issues. If they can’t, have another meeting with you there. This can be a slow painstaking process, but it works. When each person is taking a turn reading answers to the other and then discussing the answers, volatile outbursts are unlikely. This technique requires time and patience, but it tends to be more successful than the “band-aid” approach.
CONCLUSION
Effective communication is at the heart of all human activity. Bosses who excel in it make great strides in developing their people and keeping the stars in the organization. An organization’s competitive advantage depends on people, especially creative, innovative people. Successful organizations must develop, sustain, and market high levels of innovation throughout their infrastructures to maintain their industry leadership. To encourage the pace of this sort of initiative, leaders can no longer rely on a few key individuals to develop creative solutions. Instead, bosses who want to attract, retain, and develop a pool of talented thinkers must know ways to encourage each person’s contributions.
This article features in the Drake Business Review magazine vol 2 – click here to view the magazine.
Reprinted with permission from Linda Henman. For over 30 years, Dr. Henman has worked with executives and boards of directors to help them set strategy, plan succession, and develop talent. The author of The Magnetic Boss: How to Become the Boss No One Wants to Leave, she has worked with Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, and military organizations. |
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Employee Engagement: Have you neglected your talent during the downturn?
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 As we approach an upturn in the employment market, employee engagement and retention need to become a key focus for organisations.
The response of organisations to the recent market downturn has had a significant detrimental impact over the longer term engagement of their workforce.
Company's reactions to the GFC such as downsizing, redundancies and recruitment freezes have actively de-motivated employees.
Even more impactful however, has been the reduction in the investment towards internal employee inducement functions |
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Performance Edge gets archived |
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Have you missed an edition of Performance Edge? Or perhaps you have read an article that you want to reference to, but don’t have the last month’s newsletter?
For the convenience of our subscribers we have developed a Performance Edge archive page on our website.
It’s an easy way to refer back to past editions and articles that are of interest. No need to search through your old mailbox items, you can access all published editions at just a click of a mouse.
To visit the Performance Edge archive page of the Drake website click here. |
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| Professional Online English Training
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English is the global language of business. The demands of international clients, multi-cultural staff, and multi-national offices require effective English communication in many areas of business.
Englishlink offers an affordable and convenient training solution for companies of any size to up-skill a team’s English fluency.
Professional North American teachers deliver 242 hours of general and business English through online video-streamed classes 24/7.
Maximise the potential of your existing team by:
o Enhancing customer service
o Increasing profit margins
o Boosting staff confidence
o Fostering loyalty, and a sense of contribution
To learn more about our teaching methodology and learning outcomes, please visit: Englishlink website or try our free trial lesson.
For sales and marketing enquiries, and to discuss how Englishlink can assist in your training needs, please contact: marketing@englishlink.com
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| Survey - How passionate are your employees about their organisation?
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Does your organisation have an image (an employer brand) that employees are proud of and makes other people want to work for your organisation?
Drake research has revealed that, following the GFC, a large proportion of staff are unlikely to recommend their organisation to friends as a place to work. It has also found that organisations are starting to find it difficult to retain and attract good quality staff.
Based on these findings, are you concerned about how your organisation is perceived by staff and potential employees? | |
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