Category: Life Coaching

You have another year to reflect on, a New Year to plan for, and today to experience and learn from. Here are some simple steps you can take to help determine what’s next for your business:

1. Past: What worked, what didn’t work?

2. Present: What is the best part about where you are now? What do you want to nurture and develop? What is the most challenging aspect of the present? What do you want to improve or eliminate?

3. Future: What do you want? What actions will you take to get there?

We encourage you to continuously ask yourself questions, in addition to finding a coach, consultant, or colleague to pose questions to you. Answering powerful open-ended questions will expand your thinking, increase creativity, and open up new pathways to business success.

Typically when a business is new people focus on the purpose, mission, vision, and core values. After time passes, however, these meaningful words lose their impact if they are not reviewed, spoken of often, and integrated intentionally into the company culture.

When was the last time you reviewed your companies

• Purpose
• Mission
• Vision
• Core Values

Take a few minutes and really think about what these words mean and whether or not they are alive in your organization.

Consider the following:

• Are they still relevant?
• Is it time to update them?
• Are they discussed?
• Do they guide decision making?

The most successful companies reflect these vital statements in all that they do, from advertising to hiring practices because they make a difference.

Every company has a culture, weather it is intentional or not. If your business is mission/vision/values driven, and has a clear identity, you are most likely aware of the culture and strive to maintain it through consistent, strategic business practices such as hiring talent that share the same core values and are like-minded and aligning business decisions with the character of the company.

If your company does not have a clear identity, more than likely the culture emerged organically and it might be effect, or it might not. Understanding your company’s culture, how it evolved, and identifying how to improve it creates a healthier work environment where employees thrive, customers are more satisfied, and the bottom-line improves.

Set aside some time to act as an unbiased observer in your company. This allows you to experience your company’s culture from a more neutral perspective and you will see, hear, think, and feel things that you may have never experienced in your workplace. Here are some things to consider during your observations:

• How do your thoughts, actions, and interactions impact your business?
• Watch how your employees interact with each other, with management, and with clients/customers. What is working? What is not working?
• What do you see, hear, think, and feel?
• Are words and actions supportive, encouraging, helpful, energetic, and collaborative…are they negative, degrading, indifferent, dull, and combative, or they a combination of positive and negative depending on who you observe?

After you observe, document what you experienced and take note on the feelings that arose throughout your observations. Is this a place you would want to work? Is it a place you would like to do business?

It may prove beneficial to ask your employees and managers to take some time to observe the culture as well. What thoughts and feelings do these observations invoke for them?

You may have culture shock after conducting your observations. The good news is, you can always improve your company culture. If you are not sure how to go about this, contact Genesis Human Resources and we will partner with you to create a healthy, thriving culture.

Conflict is a natural part of the workplace experience and we have a choice as to how we navigate through it – will it be productive and effective, or will it be negative and detrimental, or somewhere in between? When handled well, conflict is an opportunity for growth and change, and even improved relationships. When handled poorly, it breaks down relationships, diminishes trust, and wreaks havoc on productivity. According to research, positive workplace events, such as effective conflict management, enhances health, our ability to flourish, and expands ideas, actions, and solutions. Conversely, negative workplace events narrow our ability to think, take action, and find solutions¹ and have a detrimental impact on health and our ability to thrive¹.

So our conflict skills either add to or detract from the quality of the workplace experience, ultimately affecting the bottom line. In fact, according to Inc., unhealthy conflict costs U.S. businesses approximately $359 billion each year due to illness and absenteeism, reduced productivity, and poor communication² among other factors.

Here are some simple steps you can take to become more effective when dealing with conflict and enhance your workplace environment:

• Listen
• Seek to understand, rather than trying to be understood
• Ask questions
• Use “I” rather than “You” language
• Be emotionally intelligent (integrating your emotions with your thinking)
• Take a break and revisit the issue when things calm down
• Focus on the process, not the outcome
• Remember to maintain the relationship rather than winning at all costs
• Maintain a calm voice tone

Effective conflict management is an effective tool that will significantly improve any business environment when utilized consistently. Challenge yourself to use the aforementioned steps and watch your workplace experience transform.

 

 

¹ Bono, Joyce, Glomb, Theresa, Shen, Winny, Kim, Eugene, and Koch, Amanda.   Building Positive Resources: Effects of Positive Events and Positive Reflection on Work Stress and Health. 2010.

² Winfrey, Graham. Inc. http://www.inc.com/graham-winfrey/the-shocking-cost-of-workplace-conflicts.html The Shocking Cost of Workplace Conflicts (Infographic)