How do you resolve your people problems at work?

Gossiping, turf protection, retaliation, taking sides, planning responses, avoiding, verbal explosions, navigating around the spectacle—all of these take time and energy away from working and managing.

It’s estimated that American employees spend 2.8 hours per week dealing with conflict, not a big number at first glance but it adds up–$359 billion in paid hours or the equivalent of 385 million working days.

If you don’t resolve these people problems, they can disrupt and sabotage your business.

People problems are high profile conflicts with strong emotions, high stakes, and differing opinions. Striking examples are the executive who doesn’t listen and yells at others, or the management team members who fight constantly for power and control. These situations can quickly spin out of control.

But these challenges can be resolved; problems can be fixed

The good news is you can manage tough situations like these by connecting on a human, relational, and emotional level. You can communicate effectively and powerfully to get what you need. You can read between the lines to understand what’s really going on, moving people from resistance or apathy to engagement and a willingness to resolve their conflicts.

If this is so easy, why am I stuck?

Because you may not know how to fix these seemingly intractable problems. Often business leaders get so busy with day-to-day operations, they take people for granted. Or they’re uncomfortable and ignore people problems, sweeping them under the table to avoid conflict.

Unfortunately, ignoring people problems with “business as usual” limits your business potential. It lowers workplace engagement, decreases morale, and promotes such psychological toxicity that productivity spirals down. Your employees gossip at the water cooler. Your best ones leave to find other jobs. Eventually, your profitability takes a hit.

You can’t ignore these kinds of problems.

OK, so what do I do?

The best thing to do is find a trusted advisor, or a coach, who can help you get out of your head and into your heart. Choose with care; not all have the skill to address complex people problems. You want someone with advanced psychological training and extensive experience. Someone who connects with you on a human, emotional level. Someone who is unafraid to directly address the parties to the conflict. Someone whose heart is focused on getting business results.

Our approach will get you there

As trusted advisors and executive coaches, we help companies create effective leaders and high performance teams. We have advanced degrees in clinical social work, management, and psychology, with a combined total of almost 70 years of experience with individuals and teams. One of us has been called “a marriage counselor for business, a sort of Mr. Fix-It for business problems.”

We get you real-world business results because we bring the best of BUSINESS and PSYCHOLOGY to our work with you. Call it the sweet spot where business and psychology meet. We’re experts at how to use emotion to propel the change process along. We dig deeper. We get into causes. We don’t just deal with symptoms. We don’t waste your time or effort. Everything we do is customized to your needs.

Our hearts are focused on getting you business results. Learn more.

For more about conflict resolution, click here.

We can help you. Call us (Bob or Andrea) at (610) 446-4981 or via email. We’d be happy to talk to you at no charge and with no obligation.