A recent survey conducted by Inscape Publishing, Inc. was highlighted in a recent edition of Training Magazine (July/August 2009 issue)

The survey was looking at what type of courses would increase their effectiveness at work. Not surprisingly, leadership skills was the number one response, but “Conflict Resolution” training was the number two answer!

According to the article, “What was surprising was the No. 2 slot: dealing with conflict or difficult people (chosen by 53 percent). Hot button topics such as innovative thinking and critical thinking were rated only slightly higher than perennial favorites such and time and stress management.”

I was especially interested that out of the top ten answers, the People Academy, Inc, had modules addressing all of them, with the exception of technical training. Nine out of ten. Not too shabby. Basically that means that everyone out there in business can use The People Academy, Inc’s information to make a positive impact in their workplace.

That didn’t surprise me really, but I thought the categories in the survey were really interesting. It seems there are so many commonalities in the challenges we face as we (literally) go about our business.

But negotiation, communication and conflict resolution are as much a part of our personal lives as they are our business lives. Raising four children certainly taught me the value of conflict resolution, and communication skills made conflict resolution less necessary (or not as often anyway).

Coaching really amounts to helping people with all aspects of their lives. It’s not like the skills we learn and teach are compartmentalized. That’s one of the best parts of learning people skills.

Source of quote: Training Magazine

I was helping my landlord while he was working on the hot water heater at our house. Even writing that sentence seems strange to me. Thinking that we had a landlord, instead of owning our home. With two of our ‘children’ in their twenties and out of the house and a third heading to college in a month, choosing to downsize really was the right move, but being in a rental property hadn’t even been a thought.

However, I have come to realize the degree of freedom that we now have. We’ve lived here a year now, and are on a month-to-month lease and can pretty much pack and go anytime we feel like. Haven’t had that option in over twenty years. Our rent is about half of what our mortgage payment was and mowing the lawn turned from a three hour job into a half hour. (With about a six month mowing season, that is saving 65 hours of my time, and I’m sure a few dollars in gas)

Why am I sharing this? It’s not to brag that I am a renter. It’s frame of mind. Two years ago I would have thought that renting was a poor choice, throwing money away instead of building equity. Perspective. Advantages can be found in any situation, but sometimes we don’t even consider the options that we have. That can be where coaching or a mastermind group comes into play. That can bring “fresh eyes” to your situation, and your fresh eyes can help someone else’s circumstances.

We often feel like we are trapped in the thing we call our life, but you aren’t stuck without options. Sometimes the options aren’t easy ones, or even ones that you can see. Maybe it’s getting rid of the Lexus and driving a Honda. That might be an easy choice. Harder might be realizing that some of your friends are holding you down and it’s time to move on without them, or without them being a large part of your life. Harder still is realizing that perceptions we hold about ourselves and our circumstances are mostly in our own heads. You can take that Honda to the carwash and pressure wash away the dirt that has built up over time, but where do you go to clean out the garbage that can fill your head?

Rob Britt

Oh sure. Look at the picture. Nice hair there sonny. I have had a lifetime of nice hair as judged from afar (and very near and close up with the senior citizens as a 16 year old bagger at Jewel). Boy, if you are not from the Midwest then that statement ‘bagger’ could make me some (R) Senator’s date. I am talking groceries here not gross-eries.

So, I have nice hair and can attribute that to nothing but genes; mainly from my mother’s side as my father’s had none; hair that is. But what happens when an attribute of compliment churns to the south? My hair, I’m told, looks good in June and September but holy s* when July and the dog days of August hit the street. Not unlike that Life magazine picture of July 1945 when we decided over Nagasaki that enough was enough.  The only real difference (except for the tens of thousands of disintegrated Japanese families) is that my hair is in color. My only real chance of hurting anyone is driving down the highway windows open hair flailing like some old feather duster on acid.

The point is that sometimes, through forces not our own, gentle natural properties become not so gentle. Qualities that are complimentary do sometimes become our own worst enemy.  As we work with those we love and those we don’t (but who pay us) remember this. The discord of humid laden hair is not a ‘fault’ it is nature’s way of calling attention to the unmanageable while sometimes rising to the unimaginable. It’s that way with personal development and it is that way with organizations too. There are natural causes underlying organizational “humid hair”; the natural state gone astray.

The answer then is to understand the nature of the humid-ic unmanageability and to plan accordingly. We are familiar with many of these forces on behavior; social issues sometimes from home, lack of proper training or, more likely, proper managing, and a lack of direction or sense of worth. Responses range from the preventative to the reactionary. While all situations cannot be predicted many more than are now could be; with some awareness.

It is only important that responses be appropriate. And they can only be appropriate if we understand. And we can only understand if we consider the other. In life and at work and with all the relationships that intertwine it is the same.

Be aware of who you are and understand the forces that move you away from that.

Jim Reece

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimreece

jim@thepeopleacademyinc.com