00:46
Faizan
If you've ever been stung by a bee, you know the feeling of being at the wrong end of wrath. It happened to me years ago. I was driving Highway 99, the second loneliest highways in the U.S. when I felt what can only be described as a piercing stab in the jugular. The pain was instant and startling. It came literally out of the blue. I reached up and felt something sticking in my neck, and if the pain was bad before I pulled it out, it didn't even compare to the pain after. I looked down. In my hand was a dead bee.
Because of the location of the sting and my apparent allergic reaction, I started to swell up pretty fast. There was literally no traffic on the road, until a patrol car sped past at around 100 miles per hour. I raced after it, honking, yelling, waving an arm out the window, doing 90, but he never even slowed.
Meanwhile, my tongue swelled, my air passage was closing, and I knew I was in trouble. Long story short, I made it to my destination barely recognizable. When my host opened the door, she immediately took one look, ran for Benedryl, and within the hour, I was almost back to normal.
Such is not the case with stinging confrontations at the office. Rarely do people just bounce back, and the repercussions can be harmful not just to an individual or team, but to a business.
I have yet to run across a business owner whose business life has been confrontational-free. Common occurrences when confrontation rears its ugly head are: disciplining staff, firing someone, or situations that arise because of misunderstandings or miscommunication.
Most business owners don't go into business with a clear-cut plan on what they will do if problems arise. They take a, "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," approach, which at times can end disastrously.
How we respond to conflict is generally determined by key factors, including what we learned from our relatives, friends, colleagues, and superiors. The thing is, most of them got their training in the same way we did (from their family, colleagues, and superiors). And that "training" has not always been the most productive, healthy, and effective way of dealing with conflict!
So, what's a business owner to do? There are plenty of resources available to study up on, and while it was one of the "drier" books I have read, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, by William L. Urv offered a gem of knowledge worth repeating and practicing: Separate the person from the problem.
Because of the location of the sting and my apparent allergic reaction, I started to swell up pretty fast. There was literally no traffic on the road, until a patrol car sped past at around 100 miles per hour. I raced after it, honking, yelling, waving an arm out the window, doing 90, but he never even slowed.
Meanwhile, my tongue swelled, my air passage was closing, and I knew I was in trouble. Long story short, I made it to my destination barely recognizable. When my host opened the door, she immediately took one look, ran for Benedryl, and within the hour, I was almost back to normal.
Such is not the case with stinging confrontations at the office. Rarely do people just bounce back, and the repercussions can be harmful not just to an individual or team, but to a business.
I have yet to run across a business owner whose business life has been confrontational-free. Common occurrences when confrontation rears its ugly head are: disciplining staff, firing someone, or situations that arise because of misunderstandings or miscommunication.
Most business owners don't go into business with a clear-cut plan on what they will do if problems arise. They take a, "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," approach, which at times can end disastrously.
How we respond to conflict is generally determined by key factors, including what we learned from our relatives, friends, colleagues, and superiors. The thing is, most of them got their training in the same way we did (from their family, colleagues, and superiors). And that "training" has not always been the most productive, healthy, and effective way of dealing with conflict!
So, what's a business owner to do? There are plenty of resources available to study up on, and while it was one of the "drier" books I have read, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, by William L. Urv offered a gem of knowledge worth repeating and practicing: Separate the person from the problem.
Posted in: business
