MANAGEMENT TIPS

Are You Avoiding Conflict at Work?

If you are avoiding conflict at work, you might be contributing to an impending explosion of emotions. When conflict is driven underground, it has a tendency to grow and, one day, explode. Unresolved conflict—stemming from such things as fuzzy ideas about who’s responsible for what, a lack or shortage of resources, and conflicting interests—can be very expensive to a company. These conflicts cause lost work hours as employees spend company time trying to find others to hear their stories about how they’ve been wronged. Morale falls and, with it, productivity levels.

Communication is the key that keeps things running smoothly in an organization. The workplace, with its various interdependent job duties, is a great breeding place for conflict. People need to be allowed to speak openly about things they disagree on; otherwise, the same problems will surface in the future. Teaching employees to speak to each other appropriately about their problems is the only way to resolve these workplace conflicts.

—Adapted from workplaceissues.com

How to Create Good Rapport

Here are a few ways to create good relationships, loyalty, and rapport in the workplace. • Pay attention to how you position yourself in relation to others. Studies show that men like to stand next to each other and women like to face each other. Try to make your audience comfortable.
• Try to give the stage to the other person, and keep the focus on that person as much as possible.
• Try to appear calm. Don’t smooth your hair or play with your jewelry. This makes people feel you are not paying attention to them.
• Smile. Smiling during conversations is important to communication.
• Try to mirror the other person, delicately. Don’t copy, but mirror—with grace. If the other person leans back, lean back also, but subtly.
• Listen 80 percent of the time.
• Don’t offer advice. People don’t like to get advice they haven’t asked for; it’s a quick path to a communication breakdown.
• Flatter people. Be specific, or it won’t mean anything. People need to hear good things about themselves, so come up with some sincere flattery.

—Adapted from entrepreneur.com