Tag: culture

Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people.

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Workplace Rivalry and Conflict

Getting over it… Conflict and Rivalry in the Workplace

Imagine that you are a balloon filled with air and that someone is hitting, kicking, squeezing you or perhaps sticking you with a pin. The end result would be that your air would be loss and you might be damaged. This would probably leave you hurt and discouraged. While I hope this is not your case, this is what many feel like after workplace and personal interactions with others.

Let’s say that the air in your balloon represents your ideas, creativity and your self image. Now imagine that someone is trying to squeeze and put pressure on you like with the balloon exercise mentioned above. The end result for many would be defensiveness. Whenever we feel attacked we usually behave defensively to protect ourselves.  When we act defensively we began to cover up, protect, resist attack, and our actions become reactionary. If this behavior continues it will breed contempt, division, anger and unhealthy competition with others. Progress is stunted because you cannot be creative and defensive at the same time. This mindset can easily creep into a team or relationship and before you know it there is a toxic environment where people, processes, and production can’t advance.

This leads many to hold onto a GRUDGE. This six letter word can stop a team, marriage, interpersonal relationship and yes a company from flourishing. I have seen grudges between VPs of the same fortune 500 hundred company that have led to conflicts within the organization. It caused directors and managers under each respective VP to continue the conflict with each due to the VP’s dispute. The grudge actually trickled down from the top. Due to a personal grudge, internal support was lacking within the organization. This caused division, dysfunction and productivity loss. The end result was an organization trying to provide for its customers with a damaged company core and a struggling team dynamic.

How do we get through an impasse? How do we move from an unhealthy relationship to one that is healthy and productive for the team? The best way to get rid of a grudge is to walk in forgiveness. This is not as easy to do as it is to say. However, the truth of the matter is that there will not be any significant growth to the team or organization without it. Sure the team can operate in dysfunction and caring on daily task but morale, production and team creativity will be low.  Low morale equals low productivity. Here are three points about holding a grudge and walking in un-forgiveness with others.

1. Un-forgiveness causes you to live in the past

2. You can’t move forward looking backwards

3. Un-forgiveness is like driving down I-95 S toward South Carolina while looking backwards…you will soon wreck!

However, forgiveness causes you to be free from the toxic mindset of revenge. It also shows that you are a strong person. Moving pass a wrong/perceived wrong causes you to have a stronger self image and demonstrates self-control.

Consider our example with the balloon except now your air is in a metal tank.  The same things can happen to you (as in our example) but now your air is protected by a strong healthy self image. You are in control of self and forgiving is a part of you. This is not to say that you need to be defensive or have a hard exterior (like a tank). Instead, you will have a healthy internal picture of self. A picture that is powerful and positive which will put you in control of your actions. This will cause you to be responsive not reactionary.

You can use this personal power in a positive way that attracts peace, unifies teams, and promotes advancement. Your efforts will produce a good a positive change for you and those around you. When a positive mindset of the people in the relationship (team or organization) change, the dynamic of all those involved will shift in a positive way. Often just a little shift in a team mindset can have an amazing affect on behavior, productivity and the culture of the organization.

Allen Forbes
Author and Corporate Speaker

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The Bottom Line

Should Management Listen to Their Employees

 

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My wife and I have trained and taught thousands of individuals. However, when we are training on workforce development we usually hear about how employees feel they are treated. They share how they are often met by management with “it’s my way or the highway” attitude. They often feel like they don’t have a voice and that they are not significant enough to listen to. This leaves the employee feeling undervalued, invisible and often disgruntled.

In most cases we realize that the company/organization has a culture problem. Either there is no culture, bad culture or a poorly communicated culture issue. High level management is not usually aware of this predicament but they notice it on the bottom line. Sales are down, predictions are missed, morale is loss and grumblings are at all levels within the organization.

Top level management is usually focused on innovation and the bottom lines. Mid-level management is focused on spreadsheets, sales and operations. While lower level management has to focus on getting the job done and metrics. In the instances when we see employees feeling undervalued, the problem is that little or no emphasis is focused on the people doing the work or the organization’s culture. While top level management may initiate a company culture it is often loss between the spreadsheets, sales, operations, metrics and day to day activities.

When a company or organization recognizes that the people within the organization are just as valuable if not more than the product or service being delivered they will notice a positive jump in the bottom line. When employees are valued, respected and listened to they feel better about the work that they do and become invested in their careers.
An organization that places great value on its employees will produce a company culture that thrives and exceeds their customers’ expectations while improving their bottom line.

• Productivity improves by 20-25% in organizations with connected employees. (Source: The McKinsey Global Institute)

• 58% of employees say poor management is the biggest thing getting in the way of productivity. (Source: Society for Human Resource Management)

• Employees who exercise their strengths on a daily basis are 8% more productive and 6x more likely to be engaged. (Source: Gallup)

• Teams with high employee engagement rates are 21% more productive and have 28% less internal theft than those with low engagement. (Source: Gallup)

• Organizations with low employee engagement scores saw 18% lower productivity, 16% lower profitability, 37% lower job growth, and 65% lower share price over time. (Source: Queens School of Business and by the Gallup)

Allen Forbes
Author, Speaker and Team Building Guru
info@AFspeaks.com

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