Articles
From time to time Balance Curve publish articles designed to support and assist our clients. Some of our historical articles are found below.
All Conflict Management
Dealing with really difficult bosses
Some bosses seem to be permanently ensconced at the high end of the “difficult to deal with” continuum. They don’t just have their moments – they’re frequently really difficult to deal with. Under pressure they’re intransigent, aggressive, and highly emotional. Think Donald Trump. Bill Eddy, President of the High Conflict Institute, suggests that approximately 15%…
Read MoreDiscussing Performance – How to avoid having a civil war
It’s unbelievable how quickly “performance” conversations can spiral out of control. Formal performance reviews have their own particular challenges, but even informal performance conversations can be tricky. I recently observed one of my workshop role-plays where a participant was playing a team leader having a conversation with a member of his team who wasn’t performing…
Read MoreUnderstanding Difficult People
This is a continuation of my last blog on Dealing with Difficult People. If you haven’t read that blog, here is a link as it’s worth a quick read: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dealing-difficult-people-mark-rosenberg?trk=pulse_spock-articles. If the first step in dealing with a difficult person is “Self-Reflection” – getting a handle on what’s going on for you, the second…
Read MoreDealing with Difficult People
Every now and then you come across someone who makes life really difficult. They take up more of your time than you’d like, and are responsible for creating an inordinate amount of stress and anxiety in your world. How do you deal with these “difficult” people? It isn’t easy. A useful starting point is to…
Read MoreMastering Elephants – How to have a Hard Conversation
Effective leaders have “hard conversations” about accountability and performance. They address the “Elephants in the Room”. When they don’t have these “hard conversations” and fail to talk things through, problems fester, morale suffers and productivity drops, while the quality of decision making is affected as people fail to collaborate and communicate. In spite of the…
Read More5 Steps to Control Your Anger
The following blog was written by my colleague Craig Runde, Director of the Center for Conflict Dynamics at Eckerd College. I thought you might find it useful. “Conflict is rife with emotion. One that we frequently encounter is anger. While it is often a secondary emotion that is initially triggered by fear, anger…
Read MoreHow Do You Avoid Being Misunderstood?
Last weekend I was misunderstood, and it was not a good experience. I was attending an end of season sporting function. I arrived at the venue with my kids and saw my friend Josh’s wife and daughter getting out of their car and approaching us. I’m thinking “Great, here’s Julie and Tracy. I’m glad…
Read MoreLet people be heard
Time poor managers (and that’s pretty much all of us) want to find the best solution as quickly as we can. This means that we often become frustrated when we bump into people who have a different approach to the one we want to take. The thought just pops into your head: “This guy is…
Read MoreSolve 90% of conflict – Keep people talking
When I work with leaders I often ask the question: What’s compromising performance and productivity in your business? Destructive conflict within the team, with colleagues, with other teams, with customers or with suppliers is almost always mentioned. It costs the organisation a lot of time and money, creates stress for everyone involved and inevitably damages…
Read MoreBecoming Comfortable with Conflict
High performing organisations are comfortable with conflict. Leaders allow it to happen and ensure their people are skilled in having “constructive” rather than “destructive” conflict. How do you create an environment where people are comfortable with conflict? Michael Kirton, the British psychologist notes that as soon as we have a problem that involves us working…
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