Joyce Weiss

I work with organizations and individuals who want to kick conflict and chaos to the curb - Queen of Conflict Resolution and Communication Coach

By Leave a Comment

How to Improve Meetings and Increase Morale

Do you want to improve meetings and increase morale?
Have you seen creativity disappear the moment someone says something negative?

Whatever you do … don’t squelch creativity.  This article will help you reduce conflict in the workplace and improve meetings by NOT using certain words.

Improve Meetings by Avoiding these words: team building lessons | improve meetings

  • Yes, but….
  • We tried that before
  • We haven’t got the manpower
  • Don’t rock the boat
  • Great idea, but not for us
  • It’s not in the budget
  • Silence….

Improve Meetings by using positive phrases career coach | improve meetings

When someone says one of the killer phrases you can always put a spin on the statement by saying,

  • “If we could try that idea what do you think will happen?”
  • “If we did have enough people, how would that make a difference?”
  • “If we did have money in the budget, what is the first thing that you would do with it to increase morale?”

You will be amazed at how fast conflict in the workplace is lessened when the team starts paying attention to these killer phrases. You will improve meetings and hear more laughter at work!

Improve Meetings by Adding Fun

My clients create ground rules to make sure that the team knows that they will be held accountable if they say the killer phrases.  The team needs to be consistent and hold everyone responsible if the negative words are mentioned.

Of course…the idea is to add some fun in the workplace while you improve meetings and increase morale.
We don’t want to add more stress to your environment, so do your best to add a positive spin to this activity! 🙂

You can have the guilty party place $1.00 in a pot which can be used to give to the team’s favorite charity, pizza or ice cream. Please send me ideas on how you have stopped these negative phrases to reduce conflict in your workplace.

I want to hear from you

Add a comment to my blog on how you deal with negativity to improve meetings. You will receive a response from me because I enjoy connecting with my readers! 🙂  You are always welcome to send me a private email with concerns that you are experiencing at work.  Send me an email here or share your ideas in the comment section.

Please share this and any article that speaks to you or your company

Loyal readers like you help us find more people who could benefit from these posts. Help us help them reduce conflict and improve leadership skills and quality of life.

This is Joyce Weiss
Corporate Communication Strategist and Career Coach

Until next time, Remember…”You Get What You Tolerate!”

PS  Learn how I can leverage my 30+ years of leadership consulting and coaching experience to help your organization address conflict resolution in the workplace here.

 

By Leave a Comment

Ask Four Questions to Increase Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is an ongoing challenge for most companies.

Do you need some ideas to help increase employee engagement?

Do your colleagues or employees exhibit the following behavior during your meetings?

  • Roll their eyes?
  • Look at their watches every few moments?
  • Yawn a lot?

If so, you are not alone!  Many of my clients experience the same reactions at their meetings. There is hope once you experiment with the strategies on this blog.

Employee Engagement Strategy:  Create Synergy by Involving Everyone at the Meeting employee engagement

Ask each participant to either share the questions below with a partner or go around the table.  There must be a level of trust felt by the team or this could backfire.  Hopefully, you have a level of understanding who is on your team and how you can move forward to improve employee engagement.

  • What is something about our company that you’re feeling good about?
  • What are some questions that you’d like to ask others in this room?
  • What is something most people don’t know about you?
  • What were your favorite toys, games, and candy when you were a child?

I realize that you have time restraints and important information to cover in your meetings.  I also know that my clients see great results after they engage others.  Participants relax after they discuss the questions.  People not in the meeting hear laughter oozing from the walls and ask me what I did to create such energy.  🙂

Employee Engagement Strategy:  Listen and be Open to Complaints employee engagement |Favorite quotes | Joyce Weiss | Career Coach | Corporate Communication Strategist

You may hear complaints from your colleagues that these questions are a waste of time.  I suggest that you listen to their feedback.  I also suggest that you make your case on how you want to improve the quality of your meetings and continually improve employee engagement.  You may still hear some whining BUT if you facilitate the meeting by asking these questions, you will see the majority of your colleagues see how these ideas encourage laughter and barriers begin falling down.  Teams will be more involved and engaged.

Employee Engagement Strategy:  Thoughts from Joyce

I use these techniques during serious conflict resolution sessions because laughter and employee engagement
are both time savers.  Look for more information on the importance of laughter in future blogs.  It helps when people feel listened to and are taken seriously.  The result is that the answers to the above questions show how the team is more alike than they thought they were before the meeting.

I want to hear from you

Add a comment to my blog on how you improve employee engagement.  What strategies do you use?  You will receive a response from me because I enjoy connecting with my readers! 🙂  You are always welcome to send me a private email with concerns that you are experiencing at work.

Please share this and any article that speaks to you or your company.

Loyal readers like you help us find more people who could benefit from these posts. Help us help them reduce conflict and improve leadership skills and quality of life.

Learn how I can leverage my 30+ years of leadership consulting and coaching experience to help your organization address conflict resolution in the workplace here.

 

This is Joyce Weiss
Corporate Communication Strategist and Career Coach

Until next time, Remember…”You Get What You Tolerate!”

PS Do you want more questions to ask to improve employee engagement?
Read How to Help Your Team Find Opportunities HERE

 

By Leave a Comment

7 of My Favorite Quotes

This week I’ve decided to share some of my favorite quotes that I use in my articles and programs. Feel free to use them to open up a meeting or share with others who may need to hear the messages. Hope you enjoy the quotes from some inspiring people.

  1. “Children are happy because they don’t have a file in their minds called “All the Things That Could Go Wrong.”
    Marianne Williamson – American Author
  2. “Once an organization loses its spirit of pioneering and rests on its early work, progress stops.”
    Thomas J. Watson – American Businessman
  3. “The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.”
    M. Scott Peck – American Psychiatrist
    … [Continue reading]

By Leave a Comment

Enhance the Workplace to Increase the Work Pace

Tom, a client of mine exhibited the qualities of a leader on fire by trusting his team to run meetings their own way.  He knew that his meetings had to improve.  His team was bright and creative yet the meetings were not.  He told them that they could be in charge of  future meetings.  Tom was still going to give them quick updates at the end of the meetings.

Tom was pleasantly surprised when Sue, one of his quietest employees volunteered to lead the next meeting.  This meeting was the best one of the entire year.  Are you asking  yourself what Sue did?  She asked everyone to write down their goals and how they each needed support to reach these goals.  Sue wrote each goal on a piece of large paper.  Everyone put down their name on the sheet of paper where they could help their colleagues overcome obstacles.  

Tom was so proud of Sue and told the president of the company that the entire team gave her a standing ovation after the meeting.  The results were apparent.  Each team member is now planning their own creative way to lead the meeting.  Tom stirred things up.  He changed the status quo with his strong and creative team.  I told him how impressed I was with the fact that he knew that his meetings needed help.  Tom is an excellent leader who could give his own workshops on employee engagement!

Here are 2 more ideas on how to enhance the workplace to increase the work pace.
Ask yourself…

1.  What negative behavior am I letting slip by?

               Nip negativity immediately since it is extremely contagious

2.  What rules or policies do we need to get rid of?

                Many teams have outdated policies.  Outdated rules ultimately hurt morale and hinder customer service. 

Want to Use This Article to Share with Others?

Of course! You are welcome to print this, and any other articles we send, if you use the following byline:
A recognized expert on Resolving Conflict in the Workplace, Joyce Weiss, M.A., CSP is an author, accountability coach, and a Certified Speaking Professional. To book Joyce to speak at your event or company call: 800.713.1926 or email: Joyce@JoyceWeiss.com
Visit her website at www.JoyceWeiss.com to sign up for your own FREE video series on Resolving Conflict in the Workplace.

Was this helpful?

Please send me any comments that you may have for this article. Hit the link at the end of this post to share your ideas or questions. Loyal readers like you help us find more people who could benefit from these posts to reduce conflict at the workplace and home. There may be someone in your life who is feeling stressed out…who could benefit from the inspiration and knowledge on improving their working condition or home life.

Until next time,

This is Joyce Weiss, Business Conflict Resolution Consultant

I help people become top level leaders who get GREAT results.
How do I do this?
I teach them to tackle the tough conversations with bullies and negative people to build employee engagement, accountability, and rock star performance…
The Result? My clients get a better night’s sleep!
The next time you need a consultant for a company retreat or meeting, think of Joyce Weiss Training and Development LLC.

Remember…You Get What YOU Tolerate!

 

Contact Joyce

Email: joyce@joyceweiss.com
Phone: 248-681-5831