by Elizabeth Williamson | 7 Dec, 2021
You can create more peace in every conversation you have.
Too often fault and blame about the past gets in the way of successfully resolving conflicts, especially when there is a lot of emotion involved.
Here are five tips to reduce the risk of failing in difficult discussions when you could achieve an outcome that potentially works for everybody.
by Elizabeth Williamson | 26 Apr, 2021
“I don’t like conflict, but I’m actually really good at getting in the middle of it. So I’ve learned a lot from my mistakes. And that sort of mistake led me towards saying “I’m never going to be a counsellor” and then finding it’s what I do, it’s my state of flow, if you like. And then finding out that counselling is all about difficult conversations, difficult people. We know we have difficult internal experiences. And that led me to get really interested in how to resolve conflict. So I now work a lot with having people with who have difficult people in their lives or need to have those difficult conversations that we avoid. Yeah, organisations that need to deal with difficult circumstances, or difficult environments, difficult people. So that’s, that’s my world now.
by Elizabeth Williamson | 15 Mar, 2020
When there’s potential for tension and heightened emotions research shows what you do in the first 3 minutes is vital. If you start a conversation with criticism or harshness, then add defensiveness and blame, the likelihood of escalating conflicts and wanting to withdraw from the relationship are predictable outcomes.
by Elizabeth Williamson | 9 Nov, 2018
You might even recall the Appoc scandal from 2016. There’s been a decade of concerted effort to raise awareness about workplace bullying and yet a 2016 Report from Safe Work Australia of over 4,000 workers found the incidence of workplace bullying in Australia...
by Elizabeth Williamson | 15 Oct, 2018
Every organisational values statement I have ever read includes the words respect, integrity and trust. But if you were to ask staff in many organisations, you might find that those words aren’t in their experience of workplace culture. Good workplace culture requires...
by Elizabeth Williamson | 8 Sep, 2018
Psst: Contrary to popular belief, confidence is not an emotion. I used to think that confidence was feeling cool and sort of, well, unemotional. But confidence is not so much how you feel but how you think about a problem or challenge. Confidence is the skill of...
by Elizabeth Williamson | 3 Sep, 2018
Workplace conflicts steal your energy and motivation at the office. Not to mention the additional stress you take home, the restless nights, lost sleep and negative impacts on your overall health and well-being. Business excellence requires recognising conflict risks...
by Elizabeth Williamson | 23 Jul, 2018
Conflict makes our world turn, our heads spin, our hearts race and sometimes our hearts break. It is the arc of every story, song, movie and indeed, many of your thoughts. What you rehearse becomes your reality. You are the director, scriptwriter and star of all your...