Positive Behavior, Productivity, Passion
Creating Positive Corporate Culture through Communication by Martha Wilcoxson
Jeff Sachs – “Lessons in Peace Making” seems an appropriate tribute to this Presidents Day. It was the Cuban Missile Crises of 1962. The key take away from this great read is that when the majority of decision makers felt that proliferation had reached a point of no return and that peace could not be achieved, President John F Kennedy’s vision was different.
Can governance as leadership help inspire peace? The century old service organization, Rotary International, added their peace initiative to the 4 Avenues of Service. Peace is more than just the absence of conflict.
Mediation is an essential skill for managers as they encounter conflict management situations almost daily. These skills offer managers structure to identify and deal with conflict.
Conflict resolution and dealing with anger in the workplace is one of the most difficult and awkward processes a supervisor/manager/director must face. We suggest 5 steps to deal with anger in the workplace.
We were recently involved in a team-building project stemming from long standing disagreement(s) between two managers. Issues that began small, bloomed into direct conflict. The conflict that had become a fact of workplace culture had now divided departments, threatened production and fostered a toxic work environment. Our approach to help was successful!
No one would state that the firing decision is easy. So the question remains, how to get past the suffering and on to the next stage. Enter the “Employee Cost/Benefit Employment Worksheet”. It sets out a process that every manager/supervisor/director should be going through when dealing with an employee that may be competent in skills, but a toxic element in the office.
We use a large 12 month calendar to mark happenings and events of the year. At the end of the year, looking back at all that was memorialized on the calendar, we realized we should put just as much into the planning of the future on next years calendar.
What a sick office culture looks like. The bad news: if your office displays 2 of the following 5 team maladies, you have a sick office culture: 1. Interoffice sabotage (usually driven by gossip) 2. Excessive non-medical absenteeism 3. Limited dialogue, lack of free expression 4. High turnover – all staff positions. 5. No passion. Lack of direction. It’s for the paycheck, not the team There is good news...
What makes mediation unique and helpful in conflict management in the workplace? Roadblocks to successful mediation can take many forms from structural (bad location) to talent (amateur practitioners). It’s probably no surprise that these two issues can also be basic components of very successful mediation.
Gossip can be detrimental to positive corporate culture and is often referred to as a "cancer" truely impacting the very core of an organization. But what can you do to manage it?
Martha Wilcoxson, EdD, Colorado NDR
Positive Behavior, Productivity, Passion 