Thoughts and Insights by Michael Gregory

Success in business and appreciation

Have you ever volunteered at an activity, and come away with a positive feeling for what you have done? You feel good about yourself and for having made a positive difference in someone else’s life. Have you noticed that the leadership was extremely appreciative and gave you many kudos at the beginning, during the activity, and at the end? Learn from this and treat your employees as volunteers. Provide authentic appreciation at work on a timely and regular basis for something specific. This will enhance collaboration, engagement, and a sense of belonging. Side benefits are better productivity, more revenue, and more profit. These are not the goals, but these are the tangible benefits by taking these proactive, positive, engaging, appreciating actions when genuinely and authentically applied.

How do you make uncomfortable situations comfortable?

We all must deal with people and stressful situations at work, home, and life.

Ethics and Negotiations - Eight principles to be a better bargainer

Having blogged previously on how to apply ethics in negotiations that commentary will not be repeated here. Rather, having presented Ethical Leadership – Principles and Practices to the Illinois CPAs this past week, upon reflection I wanted to share with you eight principles of negotiation to boost you bargaining skills in various business situations. These eight principles are not in a priority. They are character, reciprocity, publicity, trusted friend, people, advising others, legacy, and planet and greater good. Each of these is elaborated on below.

Six key attributes of listening actively

For both collaboration and conflict resolution listening actively is key to understanding. All to often you have what we want to say on the top of your agenda and what you want to have happen as your primary position. However, if you want to truly collaborate and/or address conflict resolution, the real key is to listen actively. This article provides you with six key attributes to listen actively. Based on this commentary you can act to constructively apply these six key attributes to promote both collaboration and conflict resolution.

Build trust to enhance collaboration and conflict resolution

In the book The Collaboration Effect trust is presented as part of the foundation for both collaboration and conflict resolution. Here the focus is on trust and being trustworthy. What can you do to enhance trust and promote trustworthiness with others to promote collaboration and conflict resolution to address disputes?

This is how can you collaborate with people you do not like at work

You may have to work with someone you don not like. So how can you work with difficult people, overcome any disputes or conflicts, and work collaboratively with one another? This may involve listening, empathy, and leadership on your part. This may involve some self-examination to see if maybe you might be part of the problem. This article explores a number of areas for you to consider so that can work collaboratively with people you do not like.  In the end we all have to sometimes work with people we would really rather not have to work with, but the task has to be completed and you going to have work this with that person. So now what do you do?

This is how you persuade the unpersuadable

“Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one they sprang up” Oliver Wendell Holmes This quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes is directly on point to the subject of this commentary. Do you have to work with arrogant, egotistical, narcissistic, controlling, or disagreeable people? Then read on.  Collaboration is key. Address conflict. The ideas presented here are based on neuroscience and psychology with direct actionable alternatives you can apply at work and in life.

Collaboration is the key for your workforce of the future

From my series of sessions for CPA societies, associations, and businesses on How to Hire, Train, and Retain the Best Employees, I have also completed additional research on how to create your workforce of the future. Collaboration, listening, and leadership are key to developing your workforce of the future. This article explores some of the key elements for your consideration in the application of The Collaboration Effect.

How much is the high cost of unmanaged conflict costing your organization

Unmanaged conflict has a significant impact on morale, turn over, and the bottom line. What if you could collaborate constructively instead? Conflicts, disputes, conflict resolution, dispute resolution and healing are key elements to address for effective leadership. Exploring the costs, employees leaving, ongoing implications, your challenges as a leader, and the implications on trust, are things you can address going forward. This article takes a fresh look at this issue and provides you with tools to help you, your team, and your organization. By managing conflict, it is possible to reduce wasted resources, enhance relationships, and be more profitable.

Take advantage of The Collaboration Effect

I would like to explain the three elements of The Collaboration Effect to address both conflicts and collaboration. Is conflict blocking your results? Would you like to be more productive, more profitable, and have more pleasure? Then you will want to take advantage of The Collaboration Effect by connecting relationships, listening actively, and educating judiciously to build bridges and negotiate closure. The Collaboration Effect enhances relationships, resources, and results. In other words, by taking advantage of The Collaboration Effect you will be better as a person, your firm will perform better, you will be able to interact better with difficult people, and you will have better results with others with improved collaboration.