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

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Resolving Conflict in the Workplace: My Favorite Articles and Strategies

Resolving conflict in the workplace is the #1 topic that comes up during my private coaching sessions or workshops. Bullies and the usual negative suspects drive my clients crazy! They want to know how to deal with them without saying something that they will be sorry about the next day!

We use 3 strategies that help them gain control while helping them achieve better results with these tough individuals. I write about these tools repeatedly because my readers ask me to do so. We all know that constant reinforcement helps us break old habits and make the new ones permanent. Let me know if you have tried these out to help you resolving conflict in the workplace.

Resolving Conflict in the Workplace Strategy #1: The GAP

The GAP is the perfect tool to use when you want to gain control during a tough situation. I use it when I need to step back and NOT react since my natural behavior is to react. Hey, why do you think I help others deal with their conflict?

Pull back when someone makes you mad. I remind myself NOT to respond and decide what learning experience will occur by using the GAP. This tool has helped me many times when I used to get into trouble by speaking my truth. Listening and not responding is hard for most of us. After awhile this tool becomes a wonderful friend to my clients when the use it!

Resolving Conflict in the Workplace Strategy #2: Make the Environment Safe

resolving conflict in the workplace

Using “I don’t want…I do want” is a tool that ALL my clients thank me for when they learn how to use it and when it becomes a habit. For example, I used this tool with a recent client when he wanted me to coach Brad, his employee. Brad was being considered to become the next director of a department. Brad was not open to feedback from me and his team. I had that tough conversation with my client by expressing my concern about Brad.

“I don’t want to create stress between us since we have a great working relationship. I do want to express my concern working with Brad about a promotion since he is not open to constructive feedback. Brad is not ready to be coached now.” My client understood the dilemma and he had to deal with Brad who wasn’t promoted due to this closed mindset. He was a decent employee but was not ready to take on a leadership role.

Resolving Conflict in the Workplace Strategy #3: Be Direct with Respect®

Be Direct with Respect® is a trademark of mine that has helped many clients express their truth during uncomfortable conversations. This tool gives the person using it a formula and the person receiving the message is given a direct communication in a respectful way. Using I am…when…because helps you plan almost any conversation and you will receive great results.

I used this tool when I spoke to my client about Brad. “I was concerned when I spoke to Brad because he was defensive about all the feedback.” My client understood the dilemma immediately. There was no confusion. This was a red flag on how he had to deal with Brad on his own at this time, even though we both hoped that Brad could be coached in the future if we wanted to grow professionally.

Resolving Conflict in the Workplace Articles that you may have missed

The following 3 articles all deal with resolving conflict in the workplace. I hope that you enjoy them and find some answers to your own questions.

  1. Read this article: 5 Words to Reduce Conflict in the Workplace. You will experience a case scenario on how to deal with sarcasm.
  1. Read this article: Workplace Bullying is a Hot Training Topic. You will learn all about the Power Talk Formula and another case scenario that may sound familiar to you.
  1. Read this article: Strategic Communications: Disarm Tough Conversations. It covers the importance of constructive feedback and choices on how you can react during difficult communication.

I want to hear from you

Send me your questions or comments on what is and what is not working during your own tough conversations. Feel free to either comment in the section below or send me a private email.

Read more articles and listen to podcasts on resolving conflict in the workplace at our Knowledge Page.
This is Joyce Weiss, Communications Strategist and Executive Coach

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

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

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Working Together to Build Trust in the Workplace

Bob, a top leader in his company came to me to figure out why his team was not working together.   He told me that no one gave him input and he was wondering if trust was an issue.  We worked together for 3 months to work on his communication skills.  This article describes 3 strategies that Bob used to improve his communication skills which supported his team to begin working together.

Working Together Strategy #1:  Define what trust means to the team

 

working togetherThe American Heritage Dictionary defines trust as – “the firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing.”  No wonder why there’s a challenge with people working together.  It’s hard enough to rely on only one of these characteristics.

Bob asked his team the following questions:

  • What does trust mean to you?
  • How can I gain your trust as your leader?

This exercise was eye opening to everyone because each person required distinctive characteristics to gain his or her trust.  Bob called me right after he conducted this exercise and expressed how people were starting to speak more openly with each other.

Working Together Strategy #2:  Understand who is on your team

My clients have seen great results after we conduct a training using different assessments.  It’s important to identify the different behavioral styles because we are all wired differently.  Bob asked me to give each team member the DISC assessment which uncovers 4 behavioral styles.

  • Directors may want authority, challenges, freedom, logical approach and difficult assignments.
  • Interactors may want social recognition, people to talk to, freedom from details, and a chance to motivate.
  • Steadys may need status quo, time to adjust, appreciation, and work patterns.
  • Carefuls may need security, exact job descriptions, and attention to detail.

We divided the group to find people who shared the same behavioral style to discover how they are the same.  We then divided the group with the assorted styles to discover how they could improve their communication with each other.  There was a lot of laughter and deep conversation about the distinctive styles.  They figured out in a positive way why certain groups worked well together and why others drove each other crazy.

Working Together Strategy #3:  Discuss how the team can use this information to build trust

Understanding how each person defined trust and being aware of the 4 behavioral styles brought the team closer.  Bob took advantage of this positive environment to go deeper with his team.

He asked them to brainstorm the following ideas:

  • What the team needed from each other to become more productive
  • What they needed from the executive team
  • How meetings could be improved to improve time management

The ideas were discussed with the executive team and meaningful change happened.  I realize that some of you may not trust your executive team.  An executive coach would have to work with top leaders to discuss communication issues and transparency.  Leaders need to know how they can improve to help employees start working together.  Communication is a 2-way street!

I want to hear from you

Send me an email with your questions or comments on how to improve your team so they can start working together.

Read more articles and listen to podcasts at our Team Building Strategies Knowledge Base

This is Joyce Weiss, Communications Strategist and Coach

Learn how Joyce Weiss can leverage her 30+ years of communication and leadership consulting and coaching experience to help your organization address team building strategies here.

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

P.S.  Feel free to call me at 800.713.1926 or send me an email to find out how the DISC assessment can help you or your team improve communication and career growth.

 

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Secrets from an Executive Coach to Advance Your Career

As an Executive Coach, my clients ask me to address strategies on how to get promoted or get noticed in their company.

  • Are you ready to ask for a promotion?
  • Do you see others advancing in your company?
  • Are leaders listening to your suggestions?

There is a saying that I use quite a bit, “If you don’t toot your own horn, who will?”  I realize that there’s a fine line between being a braggart and being assertive.  I’m not asking you to put your ego on steroids! 🙂  The strategies in this article will take you on your own career path. They are discussions this Executive Coach has during accountability sessions.

If eighty-hour workweeks and impending layoffs are leaving you apprehensive about your career decision, you’re not alone. These days, countless professionals are yearning for more fulfilling careers.

Unfortunately, many professionals are going to their day-to-day work activities and feeling as if they’re pedaling a bicycle uphill in the wrong gear.

They secretly yearn for the feelings of freedom and self-reliance they used to have when they were children pedaling away on their very own Schwinn or Huffy.

How can we recapture those childhood feelings of independence, adventure, and joy?

Executive Coach Secret #1: Safely navigate work’s potholes, ruts, curbs, obstacles, and challenges.

executive coach

In order to excel professionally, you need the ability to learn from any past mistakes rather than dwell on them.

The truth is that the only wrong mistake is one we don’t learn from – when things go wrong, we have a choice. We can criticize ourselves and curse our own bad luck, or we can coach ourselves, extract value from what we learned, and focus on how we can handle that situation better in the future.

The next time something devastating happens to you, whether it’s a layoff or a failed project, remember there are lessons to be learned.  Believe me, I know what I’m talking about and remind myself of this strategy numerous times!

Executive Coach Secret #2: Take the direct route.

Many people are so confused about expectations at work.  They need to ask specific questions to receive clarity as to their job specifications.  It’s during these times that people need to use straight talk to solve issues.

Being Direct with Respect® means being able to communicate openly and honestly without hurt feelings. Encourage Be Direct with Respect® in your office by thinking about what you really want to say, writing it down, and practicing it.

The more you use it, the more comfortable you’ll feel, and the more your colleagues will follow your lead.

Executive Coach Secret #3: Stay balanced when the road is bumpy.

The majority of people are running on empty.

If your workday feels out of balance, the quickest way to identify what is missing is to know your core values.  What’s holding you back from achieving balance in your day? Can you say no to the things that aren’t consistent with your core values?

When you ignore your personal values for the sake of others, keeping balanced is a challenging ordeal.

To gain balance, you first must be true to yourself. When you can gear down, relax, and enjoy the flowers on the side of the road, you will finally see the right path.  You will find answers and become more focused when you think about what you want to do with your life and not concentrate on the negative parts of your career.

Executive Coach Secret #4: Stop pedaling in circles.

executive coach

How long has it been since you’ve tried something new and different in your work?

After evaluating yourself personally, ask people you trust to make suggestions on how you need to grow.

Use their advice to guide your education decisions. Do you need to take a computer class, a writing course, find an Executive Coach, or attend advanced leadership workshops?

To carve a new career or enhance your current one, you must take responsibility for your own future and learn new skills on a daily basis.  It doesn’t help when we stay in the status quo and don’t move forward.

 

Final Thoughts from Joyce

Your ability to safely navigate workday obstacles, use straight talk, stay balanced, and keep learning will help you recapture the feelings of your youth – when your bike was your ticket to exhilaration.

You’re the one in control! Sometimes the journey will be easy coasting, while other times it will be an uphill bumpy trek.

Either way, it’s up to you to shift your professional life in gear and create your own career path.

I want to hear from you

Send me your questions or comments on what is and what is not working with your career advancement. What are the strategies that work for you?

Do you want to see how your communication skills are impacting your career?  
Take our FREE Communication Skills at Work Assessment HERE.  I will send you a personalized evaluation.

executive coach

Feel free to send me a private email if you have questions about your own career advancement.  I am here to support my loyal readers to improve their working condition.

 This is Joyce Weiss, Communications Strategist and Coach

Learn how I can leverage my 30+ years of communication and leadership consulting and coaching experience to help your organization address executive coaching strategies here.

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

 

 

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Life Coaching Strategies to Help Your Employees Reduce Stress

Are you a leader who wants to learn life coaching strategies?
Do you want to find answers on how to balance your life better?
Are you ready to change one small behavior to reduce stress?

If so, these 3 life coaching strategies will help you get some great results.

After working for the same software company for several years, a young professional moved 90 minutes away from the organization.  Instead of dealing with a grueling commute, she proposed that she could come into the office just one day a week, and work the rest of the time from home. The company leadership agreed.  The woman found a mutually agreeable solution that allowed her to achieve work-life balance.

Unfortunately, many employees in the same situation wouldn’t feel comfortable making such a request.  With so many companies doing more with less, employees need to achieve a better work-life balance… and you can help your organization do just that.

Life Coaching Strategies #1:  Find Out What Coworkers and Employees Need

life coaching strategies

Some workers might want a more flexible office schedule, a compressed workweek, job sharing options, or resources for child care or elder care. Others may want healthy workplace initiatives like on-site exercise classes and wellness lectures.

What can you do?

Create a work-life committee to survey people and find out their needs. Members can then recommend ways the organization might help employees achieve more balanced lives.

Life Coaching Strategies #2:  Relieving the Pressure of Overtime Demands

When demands become rigorous, everyone suffers.

What can you do?

Do something special for coworkers and employees – like providing a dessert, a dinner, or little thank you gestures. Suggest that dedicated people get an afternoon off… and everyone will be rewarded with a newly refreshed coworker.

Life Coaching Strategies #3:  Setting an Example

People who don’t take time for themselves feel more stressed, and consequently, become less productive at work.

What can you do?

Don’t begrudge people their personal time. Encourage others by modeling how important balance is in your life- when you leave at 5:00 p.m. to see your son’s soccer game, realize that you are an outstanding role model!

Concluding Thoughts about these 3 Life Coaching Strategies

Most of us are looking for ways to find more balance in our life.  I constantly look for life coaching strategies for my clients and myself! 🙂  We can lower our stress by changing only one behavior.  If you are a leader bring in speakers from a local health care facility to help your employees learn the newest strategies for lowering stress. There are many books, youtube videos, and classes on finding balance.  Cicero said, Where there is life, there is hope.

The challenge for all of us is finding a solution that fits our individual needs.  I will be sharing more articles and videos on finding balance and reducing stress because my loyal readers and clients keep on asking me to do so.

 I want to hear from you

Send me an email with your questions or comments on how you or your company use life coaching strategies to find balance. What challenges to you still experience?  What topics do you want me to cover in a future article?

Read more articles and listen to podcasts at our Life Coaching Strategies Knowledge Base

 

This is Joyce Weiss, Communications Strategist and Coach

Learn how my 30+ years of communication and leadership consulting and coaching experience can help your organization address life coaching strategies here.

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


 

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Team Building Strategies to Create Open Communication

Team building is successful when employees feel safe to share ideas on how company policies can be improved. Communication issues are uncovered when I interview both leaders and their direct reports on what is working and not working with the team.  I take this information and create a personalized training for the company.  This only works with companies whose leaders are open to constructive feedback.  Team Building training will backfire when employees feel it’s the program of the month for appearance sake only.  Morale and trust are deflated when employees “know” that nothing will change after these sessions.

  • Are you a leader who wants to hear what your employees are talking about at the water cooler and use this information constructively?
  • Are you an emerging leader who wants to know how to create successful team building strategies during meetings?
  • Are you tired of the status quo and want to see positive change and results at work?

This article contains  3 team building strategies to help you create some interesting and productive conversations with your team.  All of these ideas are team building strategies that my clients use successfully during staff meetings.

Team Building Strategy #1:  Make the meeting safe

Everyone in the room is told that the feedback that I share is anonymous since all departments and job functions were interviewed.  Only patterns are shared.  There are usually negative or cynical employees who don’t trust this system. They have attended other training and nothing seems to change. This elephant in the room is addressed immediately.  All I ask is for everyone to give the training a chance before they judge the process.  If you decide to take these ideas and use them for your own training be prepared for these necessary and tough discussions!

team building

Team Building Strategy #2:  Share patterns from the interviews

The patterns are revealed.  The most important part of the training happens when employees and leaders answer the following questions in small groups:

  • What do we need to be talking about?
  • Let’s now beat around the bush.
  • What issues haven’t we been talking about?
  • How is this currently impacting you and how will this impact our future?

Another important “rule” is to make sure names are not used and blaming is not the purpose of the team building program.  It’s all about change, openness, trust, and results.  

Team Building Strategy #3:  Be specific when giving feedback

Take time to choose your words wisely so that you convey exactly what you mean – you can’t assume that people know what you want.

When giving feedback use the following 2 strategies:

  • Don’t use vague communication such as, “We need to sell more products.”
    Suggest that, “We need to create at least 2 new products in order to keep up with the competition.”
  • Don’t use hazy messages by saying, “Everyone needs to be to work on time.”
    Tell others, “We begin working with members at 8:00 am each day.”

This one team building strategy will improve communication within the entire company.  Hopefully, people will stop mind reading what others need from each other.

Team Building Strategies #3:  Ask important questions to change the status quo

The results from the phone interviews are shared after employees are face to face in the training and discuss their important feedback.
The following questions are asked during the phone interviews:

What if you were the CEO or President and had your own set of rules to keep your customers/clients?

  • What would you do differently?
  • What restrictions would you remove?
  • How would you treat your star employees?
  • How would you handle poor behavior?

So Joyce, what are your thoughts about creating successful team building training?

There are a couple of ways to conduct the important training sessions.  You can have both management and employees together depending on the trust level in your company.  You can also divide the training so management and employees work separately.  Once the training is complete the results are given to both management and employees.  I conduct an executive debriefing to discuss what changes will be made as a result of the research and employee input.  The real magic comes when employees are included in the last part so they feel that they were heard.  Of course, some of the ideas will not be used but being listened to is the #1 factor to improve your morale.  These team building strategies work!

I want to hear from you

Send me your questions or comments on what team building strategies you use.  What works and what challenges do you still experience with your team.  I will answer all comments.  Feel free to email your questions or concerns that you don’t want to share with others. 

Learn how Joyce Weiss can leverage her 30+ years of communication and leadership consulting and coaching experience to help your organization address team building strategies here.

 

This is Joyce Weiss, Communications Strategist and Coach
Until next time, Remember…”You Get What You Tolerate!”

PS Read more articles and listen to podcasts at our Team Building Strategies Knowledge Base 

 

 

Contact Joyce

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