Five Proven Methods for Overcoming Challenges at Work.
There will always be difficult workplace issues that arise, regardless of whether you are counseling employees through conflict or navigating difficult conversations. Your office’s atmosphere will greatly depend on how you deal with these challenges. Will the office be a place where you and your team can freely communicate and work, or will it be a place where creativity is stifled and discipline is feared? Everyone in a workplace is flawed and has good intentions, but they will eventually fail, struggle, or cause conflict. Errors will be made, mistakes will be made, and feelings may be hurt. You will be well on your way to a peaceful and productive workplace if you have a strategy in place for how you will deal with these events and minimize their impact.
Consider implementing one or more of the following five tried-and-true strategies during trying times:
1. Maintain patience.
When confronted with a challenging circumstance, such as a dissatisfied client or employee, a good rule of thumb is to simply listen while taking a deep breath. If you can make the person you’re talking to feel heard, the situation can often settle down on its own. We all want to be understood and valued, so when you give those around you plenty of room to express their complaints and frustrations, even if they are unfounded or you disagree with them, you feed the part of them that wants to be seen and appreciated. Take a moment to think for yourself after they have finished speaking; After that, calmly repeat what they said to you and collaborate with them to find a solution that benefits everyone.
2. Become more grateful.
If you can instill a sense of gratitude throughout your workplace, you might be surprised at how much happier everyone becomes. Your employees will feel valued if you regularly congratulate them on their accomplishments and express your appreciation for the hard work they put in. This will also help them develop a sense of excitement and jollity, which will serve as a buffer against the minor annoyances and irritations that may arise.
3. Take the plunge.
Even if you personally despise conflict, it can be tempting to ignore it. However, as the leader of your company, you must set an example for those who look up to you. Face the issues head-on rather than trying to hide them. The more you let things go unnoticed for, the more resentment and frustration you will experience.
Disgruntled employees and customers who feel neglected or ignored have a tendency to express their dissatisfaction loudly. This can lead to a thick fog of resentment and backbiting that makes it harder to balance work and life. The best way to stop this from happening is to face problems head-on as soon as you notice them. Don’t allow them to develop into something large and unpleasant. If necessary, have a difficult conversation and get to the bottom of the matter as soon as possible.
4. Try a sandwich with positivity.
Teachers and coaches have been utilizing this strategy for decades; It’s very easy to learn and doesn’t require much practice or preparation. You begin by determining the issue, problem, or behavior that requires discussion or attention. Then, you build the sandwich by choosing something positive to say before the difficult part of the conversation and something else positive to say immediately after it.
For instance, if you need to discipline an employee for arriving late on a regular basis, you could start the conversation by emphasizing how important they are to keeping the office running smoothly. Then you can talk about how important it is for them to be on time. You could thank them for being an important team member at the end of the conversation. The majority of people are eager to please and will appreciate this procedure. You are still making the hard but necessary correction, and you are doing it in a way that still highlights that person’s greatness and emphasizes how valuable they are to your company.
5. Identify Characteristics.
Everyone has their own personality and point of view; You will be better able to anticipate their responses to situations and build them up in a positive way the more you know about the people around you, including where they come from and how they see the world. For instance, if you are aware that one of your employees is extremely analytical and processes information slowly and methodically, you will know not to require them to lead projects that necessitate impulsive and irrational thought.
A surefire way to encourage cooperation and positivity in the workplace is to set people up for success or play to their strengths. Take a personality test with your team, compile the results, and then share them with everyone. The less likely it is that you will have to manage conflicts in the first place, the better equipped everyone is to collaborate effectively.
Think about starting this week by assessing the personalities of everyone on your team and coming up with strategies for using each person’s strengths in the future.
When I coach my one-on-one clients, I create a lot of simple but effective resources. When a problem or circumstance arises, I develop a resource tool to assist them in achieving even better results. In this case, I developed a performance assessment tool because the client of my business owner coaching wanted to better hold his support staff accountable. This improves regular communication with each team member regarding their particular performance and responsibilities. It helps the business owner feel more confident about what is being done and at what level of performance while also allowing the team member to feel good about their progress. Utilizing this straightforward and efficient performance assessment for each team member will benefit you, just as it has my clients. It should be tailored to each member of your team in accordance with their job description. More specifically, you should give your approval for each team member to personalize it. Every 90 days, set up a meeting to discuss the progress you’ve made in each area you’re measuring.
