Ever been told to make friends with “the enemy”. Imagine if befriending and understanding stress was a good thing.
We often hear clients saying statements to us like:
- The system is too easy for poor performers. It rewards bad behaviour.
- That supervisor is really good at their job but not great at the “people stuff”.
- I’m not sure that my managers can handle this employee situation but they really should be able to.
We’ve had a stress claim. It’s so complicated to manage and our premium has been affected. Now I’m nervous about raising any employee issues they’ll just go on stress leave.
The bad news
Poorly managed stress during difficult workplace conversations or conflict leads to a loss of productivity, inefficient relationships, WorkCover claims and can be a huge personal and organisational energy drain. Workplace stress and conflict undermines business success costing the Australian economy $14.81 billion a year with a direct cost of more than $10 billion to employers.
The good news
Through our work we have seen that making managers more effective in their workplace interactions will reduce workplace stress. Managerial Effectiveness is defined by how aware and how enabled the manager is to deal with individual employees.
Managerial Effectiveness
Understanding, supporting and developing Managerial Effectiveness is a key way to manage workplace conflict and stress. Managers can stoke the fire of discontent of workplace conflict and can decimate workplace productivity costing your business real dollars. But great managers are able to harness difference and lead productive, efficient and creative teams. These teams have lower running and maintenance costs and deliver a greater return on investment.
Can you identify where you or your managers fit on the Manager Conflict Index?
What is your effect on stress and conflict?
What is the impact of your managers on workplace stress and conflict?
More good news
Managers can move up the index! From being the problem to being a “Conflict Guru”. This requires dedicated awareness about their team, the situation and themselves. It also requires skill enablement to have the ability to deal with stress and conflict.
CPR…
You learn CPR in advance of needing it, in the hope that you will never need it. We think managing stress, yours and theirs, is just like that. Your people should learn to recognise it and minimise it so that you can have DYNAMIC workplace interactions and avoid disasters.
White Paper
We have recently developed a White Paper that assists you and your managers to become aware and enabled. If you would like a copy of our White Paper please email us and we’d be delighted to share our recently published, Better Conflict – Making workplace stress your friend.
We are actively looking to engage and work with clients on this topic through workshops, guest speaking and individual or group coaching. We look forward to hearing from you.
