CEO Blog

In the last CEO Blog post, we discussed ways to deal with conflicts in our personal business relationships. But what about conflicts found in the wider organisation? Clearly, a workplace culture that tolerates high levels of conflict is headed for trouble, with just some of the effects including high turnover, low morale, increased sick leave and of course the costs associated with dispute resolution. What can we do to handle conflict in our organisations effectively?

There are some people that just push your buttons, that make you want to reach across the desk and throttle them! Why do they have to be so difficult? Maybe it's your star performer... in all but the personality stakes around the office, or maybe your boss. Perhaps it's the leader of the next department or even your own team members. Whoever they are, we have all (or will all) at times come across difficult people that we have to work with, despite our differences. How can we deal with them in a constructive manner?

Sometimes it can feel like time is pressing down on us, akin to an invisible weight slowly becoming heavier and heavier. We have to be somewhere, doing something, talking to someone and we should have been doing it 10 minutes ago! I'm sure you can relate... Putting aside the fact that not everyone can manage their time all the time, if your life is always running over time, maybe it's time to pull on the brakes and get organised!

Your staff are the back-bone of your business. Happy, fulfilled people do good work, creating happy, fulfilled clients. Happy clients spread the word about your business and repeatedly purchase from you, increasing your potential for success. Of course, you can only do so much, and obviously can't be responsible for your employee's happiness all the time, but there are a number of areas within your control that can help to create the environment where staff can reach their full potential.

There is no doubt that to reach a senior position in any company - or indeed to run your own organisation from the ground up - takes a considerable chunk of time out of our lives. Late nights, early mornings, weekend work and not being fully "present" when with family or friends for many of us is the norm. And of course technology being what it is, our opportunities to truly switch off are more and more limited...

There's something about goal setting that makes me cringe... I remember all of the New Year's resolutions that were forgotten in the first few weeks of the year, setting a goal for the fourth or fifth time and swearing to myself that THIS time I would make it work - until I didn't. There must be a better way! All is not lost. I've set myself the goal to set my goals in a way that will mean that I achieve them. Let's see what's out there to help.