How to resolve Employee conflicts

 Guest Post by Patrick Del Rosario

It can be tempting to turn a blind eye to pesky employee squabbles and hope they simply work themselves out. Unfortunately, though, workplace disputes rarely work themselves out on their own, and even the smallest disagreements can escalate into more serious problems if left to fester for too long.

According to recent research, between 24 and 60% of management time is spent on dealing with conflicts and anger in the work place.

While it may seem like all this time would be better spent on some other aspect of running a business, it is important to keep in mind that employees are the very thing that keep a company going, and in order to keep your workforce productive, happy and stress-free, interventions are often necessary.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when settling conflicts in the workplace.

1. Stay neutral and listen to both sides of the story

When dealing with conflicts amongst your employees, it is important that you stay neutral and don’t pick sides. Picking sides will only worsen the problem and prevent you from coming up with a workable solution that sits well with both parties involved.

In a small business setting this may be more difficult, because you work so closely with people that the line between your professional relationship and your friendship can become blurred.

Before you even attempt to mediate a conflict, ask yourself whether or not you will be able to stay neutral and keep an open mind. If you don’t feel that you will be able to do this, for whatever reason, you should seriously consider bringing in a third party mediator, who can leave their personal opinions and feelings out of the matter.

One good way to help keep things neutral is to take the mediating outside the office. This will prevent other employees from feeling caught in the middle of it, and being away from the office during the discussion can help everyone feel more at ease.

During your meeting, try to give both parties a chance to speak their part without being interrupted by anyone. Then, once everyone has had their say and gotten the grievances off their chest, they will be more willing to listen to what others have to say and see the situation from another perspective.

 2. Stick with the facts

Most employee squabbles are very emotionally charged, so it is important that you as the mediator are able to keep the emotions out of the picture and listen only to the facts that are being presented.

You will probably hear lots of feelings and assumptions, but while these may be very valid concerns to the person in question, what he or she assumes or perceives may not necessarily be correct. For example, you may be told things like “I feel like he doesn’t respect me…” or “I know that he doesn’t like me…” While these are certainly real concerns, you cannot do anything with assumptions and emotions.

So, in order to get to the bottom of it, ask questions like “why do you feel that way?” or “what makes you think that?” In this way, you can learn more about specific actions and behavior that might have caused the problem.

You will also have concrete facts to go on, rather than vague assumptions about what another person may be doing or thinking. Once you are aware of any problems (whether real or perceived) you can go about helping your employees to see areas in which they need to improve or change.

Keep in mind that while you do want to get the straight facts, you will probably have to wade through a lot of emotions to get to them, which will take time and patience. Always try to be understanding of your employee’s predicament, and don’t downplay their issues by telling them to get over it or move on.

3. Ask your employees what they would like to do to resolve the conflict 

Even once you have heard both sides of the story, you may still be at a loss as to where you should begin. Sometimes, asking the employees themselves what they would like to do to resolve the issue is a good way to come up with a workable solution that both parties are in agreement with.

Also, you should always consider the possibility that the company’s practices or management methods may have played a part in the dispute. If this is the case, try to get feedback from your employees about how you could improve the team’s morale and encourage better collaboration in the future.

Try to help your employees become part of the solution rather than looking at them as the problem. If you are able to approach conflicts in this way and stay open to suggestions and feedback from others in the company, your mediating will be a whole lot easier in the future.

Guest Post - About the Author: Patrick Del Rosario is a Filipino business and career ninja. He works at Open Colleges, one of the pioneers of Online education in Australia and one of the leading providers of human resources courses and cert iv training and assessment

What really motivates us

Adapted from Dan Pink's talk at the RSA, illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace. Interesting research work showing how higher rewards not always leads to higher or better performance for knowledge workers. 

Makes you wonder if we need to review and redesign performance management philosophy and Organizations reward approach. Higher performance need not always be driven by higher rewards, economic behavior is also a function of purpose of work and inherent satisfaction which a job provides.

I am reminded of Herbert Simon's Satisficing approach where he pointed out that human beings lack the cognitive resources to maximize: we usually do not know the relevant probabilities of outcomes, we can rarely evaluate all outcomes with sufficient precision, and our memories are weak and unreliable. A more realistic approach to rationality takes into account these limitations: This is called bounded rationality. 

These observations & studies are good indicator why our approach towards human behaviour model continue to be a limiting approach due to perceptual / cognitive behaviour which is more heuristic, unique and situational.

Employee Retention - Getting it right

Changing times needs different strategies to engage and retain key employees. Organizations adopt different approach towards managing talent and working towards improving deliverables for business profitability. 

Mckinsey study shows that too many companies approach the retention of key employees during disruptive periods of organizational change by throwing financial incentives at senior executives, star performers, or other “rainmakers.”The money is rarely well spent. Many of the recipients would have stayed put anyway; others have concerns that money alone can’t address. Moreover, by focusing exclusively on high fliers, companies often overlook those “normal” performers who are nonetheless critical for the success of any change effort.

Some of the key observations are:

Find the “hidden gems”

Once HR and line managers have generated a thoughtful and more inclusive list of key players (usually 30 to 45 percent of all employees), they can begin to prioritize groups and individuals for targeted retention measures— 5 to 10 percent of the workforce.

The key is to view each employee through two lenses: first, the impact his or her departure would have on the business, given the focus of the change effort and his or her role in it; and second, the probability that the employee in question might leave.

Mind set matters

One-size-fits-all retention packages are usually unsuccessful in persuading a diverse group of key employees to stay. Instead, companies should tailor retention approaches to the mind-sets and motivations of specific employees (as well as to the express nature of the changes involved).

Retention is about more than money

Executives mustn’t view employee retention as a one-off exercise where it’s sufficient to get the incentives packages right. Rather, best practice approaches build on continuous attention and timely communication every step of the way to help employees make sense of the uncertainty inherent in organizational change.

Ultimately, what many employees want most of all is clarity about their future with the company. Creating that clarity requires significant hands-on effort from managers, including the ongoing work of tracking progress so that companies can quickly intervene when problems arise.

Targeting retention measures at the right people using a tailored mix of financial and nonfinancial incentives is crucial for managing organizational transitions that achieve long term business success; it’s also likely to save money.

Good Boss, bad times...

Its difficult being a good Boss in bad times when layoffs, pay cuts, and restructing have hit organisations everywhere .In this video interview, management professor and author Robert Sutton offers his advice on how to be a good boss in today’s difficult climate.

Managing Diverse Workforce

Managing a team with members from different cultural background and nationality has its own unique dimensions and challenges. Typically organizations have different training modules which train people on cross cultural aspects before they get exposed to the people of various nationality and culture.

Research shows that most of the organizations have few common issues which inhibit the advancement of diverse groups in the workplace : (1) negative attitudes and discomfort toward people who are different, (2) discrimination, (3) prejudice, (4) stereotyping, (5) racism, and (6) bias.

In one of the HBR series discussions, Navi Radjou, VP at Forrester Research shares his insight on why Indians score over their western counterparts.

He asked senior execs at both Western and Indian multinationals with R&D operations across US, Europe, and India what challenges they face in managing their firms’ transnational innovation networks. They pointed out that the biggest hurdle is socio-cultural, as Indian engineers think and act completely differently than their Western colleagues. The former, growing up in a red-hot economy, are animated by a “growth mindset” whereas the latter, operating in mature economies, are stuck in a “settled mindset.” These two opposite approaches clash when they are asked to collaborate on a R&D project. Why? Because Indian and Western engineers completely differ in their:

1) Reasoning. Unlike Western engineers,who reason with a predicate logic (a statement is either true (1) or false (0),Indian engineers solve problems using a fuzzy logic,the degree of truth of a statement can range anywhere between 0 and 1.

2) Problem-solving. Given their average age (mid-20s), Indian engineers belong to the Generation Y, or the Millennials, who learn through hands-on experiments (think video-games) and peer-to-peer interactions (instant messaging anyone?). When solving a problem, these grown-up “kids” harness the multiplicative power of social networking tools to experiment with multiple solutions simultaneously, and select the optimal one based on peer input. You can call this problem-solving approach “Collaborative Darwinism.” By contrast, Western engineers, many in their 30s/40s/50s, theoretically weigh the pros and cons of every single solution before even trying it, and feel too proud to ask for help when stuck solving a problem. It’s the “ostrich-style” problem-solving.

3) Market expectations. It’s hard for Western engineers living in rich economies with advanced infrastructure to design products for use by customers in developing economies with poor roads and unreliable electrical and water supply. But that’s second nature for Indian engineers in Bangalore, with its ever-congested roads and frequent power cuts. As a US tech multinational’s exec eloquently puts it: “Western engineers’ product ideas are shaped by laws of abundance whereas Eastern engineers’ inventions are motivated by the rules of scarcity.

Just to add to this , it’s also interesting to look at the famous Geert Hofstede™ Cultural Dimensions when one tries to do a comparative assessment of diverse workforce. His assessment is based on five primary Dimensions to assist in differentiating cultures: Power Distance - PDI, Individualism - IDV, Masculinity - MAS, Uncertainty Avoidance – UAI and Long-Term Orientation – LTO.India scores fairly different when compared to western countries when one looks at all these dimensions, so the differences are expected. When it comes to product designing or any solution perhaps the awareness and better understanding of cultural diversity, language barrier and different socio economic approach towards consumption and consumer behavior drives Indian mindset.So instead of terming it mindset of scarcity versus abundance it would be appropriate to term it as informed and sensitized approach towards ideas and conceptualization.

Employee Engagement -The critical Ingredients

Is Employee engagement all about inspiring people and managing emotions at work?

More than organizational policies, compensation and recreational activities at work, its leadership at various levels in the organization which engages employees. HR may always strive to come up with great policies, themes for engagement and fancy branding activities. But if there’s one aspect inspire people for superior performance at work is the quality of leadership and mentoring ability of leaders at multiple levels which organization culture facilitates . Some of the great places to work are those which have strong middle management leadership talent and they have always energized and inspired individuals in teams to go for extra mile.

I have seldom come across a disengaged employee in teams which have good leaders. By leaders I do not necessarily means the ones who make so called “strategic moves” at corporate level. For an employee leadership is experienced and exhibited at team level. It need not necessarily be a manager but also peers, and colleagues from different teams.

So does it means leadership development should be a priority for HR function?

This is another debatable issue, can leadership be developed? Yes and No-Well you’ll expect this from an HR guy. I say yes as leadership development can be facilitated by HR interventions but to assume that it can we can develop great leaders in isolation can be a mirage. Leadership development and organizational culture are inter-dependent ; similarly leadership development practices and great organizations have a binding co-relation. Great organisations have a history of developing leaders at all levels.

Employee Engagement is a collaborative effort which requires participation and commitment to the organizations people’s philosophy. Often during my interaction with employees from various organizations and different industries I try and figure out what is it that motivates them keeps them excited about the job they do, some of which are mundane and repetitive at times. More often that not, it’s the immediate leader who is the key to success of an engaged teams and motivated employees. HR as a function can’t actually engage employees in isolation unless the leadership continues to take employee engagement as internal performance metrics for evaluating and rewarding performance.

Signsof High and Low E.Q.

From: Oscar Murphy Int'l <lucydoss@yahoo.com.sg> Date: Fri May 20, 2005 12:31 pm

Subject: Emotional Intelligence - Signs of High and Low EQ !!

Signs of High and Low EQ

Listed below are general characteristics of people with high and low EQ, as I define it. Obviously, these are generalizations, but are helpful as guidelines. Please note that these lists include general signs of high and low self-esteem, as well as other variables which have not in fact been specifically correlated to emotional intelligence as defined by Mayer and Salovey. Future work will attempt to more clearly differentiate between self-esteem, emotional intelligence and my definition of EQ.

Signs of High EQ

A person with High EQ:

Expresses his feelings clearly and directly with three word sentences beginning with "I feel..."
Does not diguise thoughts as feelings by the use of "I feel like...." and "I feel that...." sentences.

Is not afraid to express her feelings.

Is not dominated by negative emotions such as: Fear, Worry, Guilt, Shame, Embarrassment, Obligation, Disappointment, Hopelessness, Powerlessness, Dependency, Victimization, Discouragement

Is able to read non-verbal communication.

Lets his feelings lead him to healthy choices and happiness.

Balances feelings with reason, logic, and reality.

Acts out of desire, not because of duty, guilt, force or obligation.

Is independent, self-reliant and morally autonomous.

Is intrinsically motivated.

Is not motivated by power, wealth, status, fame, or approval.

Is emotionally resilient.

Tends to feel optimistic, but is also realistic, and can feel pessimistic at times.

Does not internalize failure.

Is interested in other people's feelings.

Is comfortable talking about feelings.

Is not immobilized by fear or worry.

Is able to identify multiple concurrent feelings.

Signs of Low EQ

A person with Low EQ:

Doesn't take responsibilities for his feelings; but blames you or others for them.

Can't put together three word sentences starting with "I feel..."

Can't tell you why she feels the way she does, or can't do it without blaming someone else.

Attacks, blames, commands, criticizes, interrupts, invalidates, lectures, advises and judges you and others.

Tries to analyze you, for example when you express your feelings.

Often begins sentences with "I think you..."

Sends "you messages" disgused as "I feel messages" For example, "I feel like you ...."

Lays guilt trips on you.

Withholds information about or lies about his feelings. (Emotional dishonesty)

Exaggerates or minimizes her feelings.

Lets things build up, then they blow up, or react strongly to something relatively minor.

Lacks integrity and a sense of conscience.

Carries grudges; is unforgiving.

Doesnt tell you where you really stand with her.

Is uncomfortable to be around.

Acts out his feelings, rather than talking them out.

Plays games; is indirect or evasive.

Is insensitive to your feelings.

Has no empathy, no compassion.

Is rigid, inflexible; needs rules and structure to feel secure.

Is not emotionally available; offers little chance of emotional intimacy.

Does not consider your feelings before acting.

Does not consider their own future feelings before acting.

Is insecure and defensive and finds it hard to admit mistakes, express remorse, or apologize sincerely.

Avoids responsibility by saying things like: "What was I supposed to do? I had no choice!

Holds many distorted and self-destructive beliefs which cause persistent negative emotions
May be overly pessimistic; may invalidate others' joy.

Or may be overly optimistic, to the point of being unrealistic and invalidating of others' legitimate fears.

Frequently feels inadequate, disappointed, resentful, bitter or victimized.

Locks himself into courses of action against common sense, or jumps ship at the first sight of trouble.

Avoids connections with people and seeks substitute relationships with everything from pets and plants to imaginary beings.

Rigidly clings to his beliefs because he is too insecure to be open to new facts.

Can tell you the details of an event, and what they think about it, but can't tell you how she feels about it.

Uses his intellect to judge and criticize others without realizing he is feeling superior, judgmental, critical, and without awareness of how his actions impact others' feelings.

Is a poor listener. Interrupts. Invalidates. Misses the emotions being communicated. Focusses on "facts" rather than feelings.

By Steve Hein

Posted By

Lucy Doss Manager - Training Coordination (Singapore)Oscar Murphy Life Strategists P Ltd 772, 10th Cross, 10th Main, Indira Nagar 2nd Stage Bangalore - 560038, India Phone: 91 80 5116 1534 / 35 Email: omls@oscarmurphy.com WEB: www.oscarmurphy.com