A business is not just a place for computers and fax machines; these are all operated by people, the employees, and they all need to get along. Fortunately, most employees today are professional and polite in how they treat each other, and employees also like it when their managers openly support and praise them for a job well done. Still, workplace harassment or bullying is a reality, and repeated mistreatment like this may drive an employee to quit. High employee turnover rates are costly, and a business may get a bad reputation for a hostile work environment, and no manager wants that stigma attached to their workplace. This is why workplace conflicts can be settled via workplace mediation firms, and serious cases might proceed to litigation or even court. How might this work? And what about Enneagram training and business leadership?
On Enneagram Training
A business leader is not made overnight. Good managers, and indeed excellent managers, are those who undergo certain training and skill building exercises to become the effective leaders they need to be. It may also be noted that no working professional, no matter how old or well-educated they are, has ever stopped learning or growing. All working professionals have the capacity (and need) to learn, improve, and branch out in all sorts of ways. Doing this can transform not just the employee’s work life, but their entire company, too, and no worker should ever settle for complacency. This is when Enneagram training can help, for example, and such training allows a manager to productively interact with their co-workers both as a boss and as a person. A skilled manager can handle the numbers and the human element alike.
A newly appointed or newly hired manager may need to do some catching up, and they can benefit not only from Enneagram training, but also attend events hosted by keynote speakers and trade shows as well, and seminars too. There is always something new to learn, and a newly hired manager can quickly learn how to implement the newest and most effective leadership strategies. This ranges from mediating or preventing workplace conflict (more on that soon) to relational leadership, empathy, cutting out time-wasting activities, and bringing out the potential of each of their employees.
Just to name one example, a good manager will avoid high turnover rates by checking in regularly on each employee, and conducting regular interviews with each of them to check in on their status. Why do this? Employees want more than a paycheck; they want a workplace that allows them to grow as an employee and develop skills and networking opportunities, and they may grow frustrated and quit if they are denied all that. A good manager will make sure that their employees are satisfied on all fronts, and create a workspace that nurtures them. On a related note, a skilled manager will diligently acknowledge, praise, and support their employees for a job well done.
Settling Workplace Conflict
Conflict is a fact of life, and it may present itself in the office, too. How does it tend to manifest? Often, workplace harassment, bullying, or mistreatment can take the form of unfairly denied opportunities for pay raises or promotion for an employee, or excluding them from leadership positions or a place in a lucrative project. In other cases, workplace harassment takes the form of verbal, written, physical, or even sexual abuse of some form, from threatening notes to groping to striking another person. Such abuse might be directed at a victim due to the victim’s real or perceived sexual orientation, racial identity, religious faith, or even a physical or mental handicap, among others.
A bullied employee is discouraged from retaliating, aside from self-defense in case of assault. Instead, the victim is urged to remember the details of the incident, such as the time, place, people involved, and anything that was said, written, or done. Now, they can turn to the company’s HR department or even workplace mediation firms for help, and work out a resolution with the instigator(s). This should be much faster and less expensive than going to court, though if the problem persists and mediation doesn’t work, the victim may hire legal help and pursue litigation. That is, if they don’t quit first.