Posts Tagged ‘business’

Conflict Resolution in the Professional Workplace

Friday, August 6th, 2010

Conflict is everywhere! Kids fight. Business professionals try to outmaneuver each other over process and control issues. Political parties battle for influence with their competing ideologies. Nations war over dominance and the control of resources. Families clash over their different values and expectations of each other. Conflict is always present with us and conflict will always be a part of our life. For the business professional, manager, or leader this makes the ability to manage conflict a critical skill.

Conflict resolution is challenging because most individuals generally use one or at most two styles for resolving conflict. The styles they use are generally not based on what is needed for the situation. Rather, it is based on what they have learned in life and found to be effective. This gives them “hit and miss” effectiveness when it comes to conflict resolution. Adding to the confusion is the fact that early management and leadership training supported this view of a preferred conflict resolution style. Some early training stated the best approach for managing conflict was collaboration. Other early management training argued that assertiveness was the best approach for getting organizational results. The truth is there is no one right conflict resolution strategy. The correct strategy to use is the conflict-handling mode that is appropriate for the situation and individuals involved.

This view of a preferred method for conflict resolution is also evident by the fact that conflict is often discussed in one-dimensional, absolute terms. Consider the following quotes that are all true and all different:

- The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it. – Dale Carnegie

- No pressure, no diamonds. – Mary Case

- You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist. – Indira Gandhi

- It is through cooperation, rather than conflict, that your greatest successes will be derived. – Ralph Charell

- Compromise… it is what makes nations great and marriages happy. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

These quotes while different describe the different modes for resolving conflict. There are five conflict-handling modes: avoiding; competing; collaborating; accommodating; and compromising. The problem is that no one mode is always the best approach. For example, is avoiding conflict as Dale Carnegie mentions always the best approach? Most understand that this is hardly true. There are some times when individuals have to stand up for their position (competing) for as Mary Case mentions if we do not, we will not get a diamond.

However, there are times when Dale Carnegie is absolutely correct that the best approach is to avoid conflict. For example, when an individual is surrounded by lions, the best option is to find a safe retreat and live another day than take on an unwise fight and die before one’s time. Many a career has been ruined by the business professional, manager, or leader who did not know when to pick his or her battles! Understanding the five conflict-handling modes will make individuals more effective in their interactions in the workplace and in their personal lives.

The five conflict-handling modes are based on the work of Kenneth Thomas and Ralph Kilmann. They developed a framework to better understand and manage conflict than these earlier views of conflict. In times of conflict, an individual’s behavior can be measured on two dimensions: how assertive is he or she in fulfilling his own concerns and how cooperative is he or she in working with others to help them satisfy their concerns.

In the competing mode, a business professional is high on assertiveness and low on cooperation. This is a forceful mode for conflict resolution and an individual is seeking to assert his or her will over other people’s concerns. It is Mary Case’s, No pressure, no diamonds. When this mode is overused, the business professional can destroy relationships with others and eventually undermine his or her effectiveness. When it is underused, others can take advantage of the business professional.

In the collaborating mode, a business professional is high on assertiveness and high on cooperation. With this style, she or he is seeking both to satisfy their own concerns and the concerns of others. Rather than fighting to get one’s way, there is equal emphasis on finding a solution that fully meets all concerns. It is Indira Gandhi’s quote: You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist. When it is overused, the business professional can waste time. When it is underused, the business professional can have difficulty gaining cooperation from others.

In the avoiding mode, a business professional is low on assertiveness and low on cooperation. With this style, they disappear from conflict. They both refuse to fight and they refuse to give-in to the will of the other party. It is Dale Carnegie’s quote: The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it. When it is overused, the business professional can become a non-player in an organization. When it is underused, the business professional can generate unnecessary organizational conflict.

In the compromising mode, a business professional is moderate on assertiveness and on cooperation. It is a middle-ground approach to conflict. With this style, the business professional seeks a give-and-take solution that partially meets all needs. It is Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote: Compromise… it is what makes nations great and marriages happy. When it is overused, business professionals can lose sight of the big-picture. When it is underused, business professionals can become unnecessarily rigid.

In the accommodating mode, a business professional is low on assertiveness and high on cooperation. With this style, he or she will satisfy the other party’s concerns and sacrifice or ignore their own concerns. It is Ralph Charell’s quote: It is through cooperation, rather than conflict, that your greatest successes will be derived. When it is overused, the business professional can lose the respect of others. When it is underused, others can view the business professional as being unreasonable.

Conflict is an inevitable part of business, management, and leadership-just like it is an inevitable part of life. Conflict itself is not bad, however. Rather, it is how an individual manages conflict that is important. If managed appropriately, conflict not only makes an individual more effective but it can also bring needed change and innovation to an organization. If managed inappropriately, however, conflict can hurt an individual’s career and overall effectiveness. It can also paralyze an organization, ruin working relationships, drive away customers, and result in lost productivity, organizational turnover, and lawsuits.

The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode instrument (TKI) is an excellent assessment for business professionals, managers, and leaders to take to assess their own strengths and weaknesses in conflict resolution. It also identifies the situations in which each of the five conflict-handling modes should be used.

Robert Tanner is President of Business Consulting Solutions LLC, the author of Why Smart People Fail at Management (available at GetToThePointBooks.com), and an Adjunct Professor of Management. He provides training and development, managerial and organizational assessments, and management coaching services. With over 20 years of management experience, Robert is a seasoned business practitioner. His clients include Fortune 100 firms, start-up firms, and public agencies. He is a frequent seminar trainer on management and leadership and was featured in Smart Business Magazine. Robert is professionally certified to administer a variety of behavioral and psychological type assessments including Myers Briggs Type Indicator™ (MBTI?), Thomas-Kilmann (TKI) Conflict Mode, DiSC, and Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior™ (FIRO-B?).

If you enjoyed this article, visit the Management is a Journey blog and join the management discussion. To learn more about his professional services, visit Business Consulting Solutions LLC.

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How To Make An Impression Over The Phone!

Saturday, June 12th, 2010

Running a business is tough and the current financial climate is tougher than it has been in years making it more vital than ever to ensure that the service that you offer your customers is the very best. Telephone answering is a basic function of a successful business yet one that can drain the money out of a small company without you even knowing it!

## Why telephone answering is necessary? Because it will generate great results for your business!

A receptionist service that is provided by an outsource firm is the perfect technique to ensure that incoming calls to your office are greeted in a proficient way.

## What is wrong with a call operator? Let me explain…

The price that you have to pay to hire a permanent staff that is entitled to annual leaves, sick leaves, food breaks as well as supplied tools is very costly and it is even worse when the calls still go unnoticed. Cut cost by hiring a telephone answering service that requires less expenditure as well as enhanced customer care!

## What do I get for my money?

For a regular subscription per month, your calls will be handled by a subcontracted agency who will answer your calls with your company name and send out your messages via fax, SMS or email. Alternatively, you can also opt to get your calls forwarded to you to make telephone answering more convenient, inexpensive and dependable ever!

## And finally…

A premium telephone answering agency will provide everything as mentioned on the above for cheaper than you normally pay for your employee. Hand over telephone answering to the experts!

Now you understand why you need a good telephone answering service? Then go out there and find the company that will help you to run your business successfully!

Do you have a lazy call operator that always leaves calls unanswered? Time to get a Medical Answering Service provided by Phone Power. Contact PPower.com and leave your calls answering to the Telephone Answering professionals!

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The Cost Of Shipping Has Historically Affected Business

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

Regardless the type of business one decides to become engaged in, there will always be a need to get whatever the product from point of origin to the market. This has not always been such a significant part of doing business, though it has always been a part of the process. The greater societal development has become, the greater the need for speedy inexpensive shipping.

As recently as three decades ago, the cost of moving product from place to place around the country was far less, though never insignificant. Smart businesses have always tried to keep careful tabs on such expenditures to ensure they did not get out of hand. Unfortunately, one of the key ingredients to transportation is oil, and we are dependent in large part on foreign oil. This has left us vulnerable at times to the political whims of other nations, with concomitant negative impact on business.

In addition to the obvious increase in costs due to gasoline and diesel, packaging products have also increased in price because many of them are made from petroleum as well. Expenses due to paper products have also increased as has the cost of labor. In all, it is simply a much more expensive endeavor to move product than it ever has been in the past.

The United States feeling about the delivery of mail and the importance of that process was immortalized by the efforts of the Pony Express which began in 1860. The task was difficult and fraught with peril. The recruiting effort of the founder, William H Russell left little doubt how dangerous the enterprise would be as he even suggested his preference to hire orphans for the job.

The impetus for this daunting task was the pathetic state of mail delivery to that point. The gold rush had accelerated pioneer travel to California, but there was no effective means for getting packages there. The population of Los Angeles did not receive notification that California had been admitted to the union for over six weeks after it had occurred.

The quest to provide truly equal delivery of the mail to every part of the US continued as Congress designated first the waterways, then the railways official postal service. The effort was dynamic but disproportionate. Even for the areas East of St Joseph Missouri which marked the end of the early phases of the railway cities received free mail delivery, but farm areas did not. It took the effort of the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry a farming advocacy group started in 1867 and 33 years to get the service started.

The fairness of the practice belied the cost of delivering the service. Eventually the idea of prepaying for postal service was made compulsory to deal with the expense of making the deliveries. This cost would be amplified as the effort to extend service to the west all the way to California was attacked in earnest. The pony express was probably one of the nations more notable and romantic efforts in the continued work to assure total international package delivery.

Today we take the ability to transfer packages across the nation and across the globe for granted. We even have the ability to get things delivered throughout the US overnight and anywhere in the world in just a few days. This has allowed the process of doing business to become and remain truly international. But despite all our progress, it is folly to enter into any business with carefully assessing the cost related to shipping.

Looking for an excellent Cross border shipping/courier delivery service? As Canada’s largest courier company, they offer overnight shipping, air freight, and other services to ensure your shipments get where they need to be quickly.

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Bookmarking Websites: Getting Links To Your Sites

Saturday, May 29th, 2010

Bookmarking websites are sites that provide service for internet users to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources. Unlike file sharing, the resources themselves aren’t shared, merely bookmarks that reference them. In a social bookmarking method, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, but can be saved for you or shared with specified people or groups.

Social bookmarking has been a great way for people to share and vote on web content. These sites normally enables you to produce an account then submit your favorite blog posts, news stories, pictures, video and just about any other type of media. These stories are voted upon by other members of the website. You can see the most recent popular stories on the front page as well as other sorting and categorizing options. Social bookmarking is a great way to get the stories that you are most interested in.

Website social bookmarking is very important to get targeted visitors to your website. When you bookmark your website in all major social bookmarking websites, your website pages will be indexed in most search engines and that may help you to get high ranked in leading search engines. Social bookmarking websites are basically websites that classify and store bookmark links’, links which take someone to a particular website. Millions of site visitors flood these social bookmarking sites to look for info. Thus the thinking behind bookmarking is to post links back for your web page from these social bookmarking websites. You need to identify some key phrases which are called tags to classify your bookmark. This allows other people to search as well as vote for your bookmark.

Social bookmarking is important for the following reasons: a) more targeted traffic because your bookmarks are categorized into various tags you’ll get targeted visitors from people searching within a particular tag. They’ll click on your bookmark link and visit your website. Your tags will get ranking well in the search engines due to the authority these websites possess. b) Quicker search engine indexing. Most of these social bookmarking websites are authority sites. The search engine bots visit these sites often that your links will be crawled almost immediately. c) Higher search engine results positioning. Getting one way inbound links is the main factor to higher search engine ranking. With social bookmarking, you will get unlimited keyword links to your site. Having more keyword links that are strongly related your website can lead to higher ranking. d) Better page rank. Having high PR social bookmarking sites linked to your site can improve your site’s PR. With a higher PR, you may link to your new or existing websites as well as increase their ranking too. You may also profit from it through selling links from your website.

Definitely, bookmarking from a service is very simple to use and customers never need to bother about having to be on their pc gain access to their own bookmarks since the services enable them having access to bookmarks from any computer connected to the internet. It is obvious that bookmarking is a great way to share favorite bookmarks along with family and friends particularly in a work environment because it has the ability to collaborate an important site. Social bookmarking websites are excellent way for customers to save time and tag their favorite websites. Bookmarking service becomes much easier to utilize since the website URL is already stored as well as ready for use.

Before you’ll do web-based advertising and marketing venture, remember to do your self a favor and be certain to have a look at these very good resources be certain to assist in producing a powerful web-based advertising and marketing technique to develop the company: bookmarking software, and virtual assistants

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Information On Common Types Of American Industrial Blowers

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

The industrial blower is an amazing piece of equipment, of which has allowed industry to jump leaps and bounds in terms of what businesses can do. An industrial blower is able to become a solution for many problems, whether it be temperature control or special applications.

In some cases, a factory will have an atmosphere that is not acceptable for a motor to work in, meaning using an industrial blower will be impossible. In a typical direct drive design, the motor is directly shelved in the casing of the blower. Belt-driven blowers are an option, of which allow the motor to operate outside of the blower and instead have a belt induce work.

Blowers can push or pull air: giving them the ability to be a forced draft or induced draft blower. Forced draft blowers will push the flow of air, which is great for controlling complex processes such as combustion or cooling. Induced draft blowers are better for pollution control, aeration, and temperature control in high-heat environments.

Axial blowers are used when air must be moved in a certain direction. The blades will rotate around the axis, moving air in a specific direction. This is compared to the centrifugal fan, which instead moves air around the axis and allows any impurities in the air to collect. Centrifugal fans are great for removing pollutants in the air that would otherwise harm industrial equipment, workers, or contribute to unsafe working environments.

Some types of blowers don’t serve the convention of cooling and moving air. Instead, they might be used to serve the primary purpose of moving a substance such as grain. Grain blowers will attempt to move grains in a precise manner, in order to clean them and dry them at the same time. Grains to be used in food operations must follow strict cleaning and drying standards before they will be allowed to make it into any recipe.

You already know of many types of aeration blowers. These types of blowers are used in applications such as the household aquarium. The aquarium needs fresh oxygen in the water for many types of aquatic life to function. The aeration blower will blow air into the water in order to mix oxygen in for the inhabitants. The same process is used in factories to oxidize certain substances.

In Conclusion

Industrial blowers are highly specific devices. They are able to be customized to do virtually any task- making it hard to shop for them if you don’t have prior experience in the blower industry. The best course of action is to find a professional company in the industry to raise your concerns to.

Learn more on Fans Belt Driven and Fans Backward Inclined.

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