In the early years of my marriage to Kathy, her family interactions during the holidays shocked me at times. My family members are peacemakers with conflict avoided at all costs. Kathy’s family on the other hand was verbal and sometimes loud when things didn’t go according to plan. The strife in those early years was hard for me to handle, ...
Years ago, I felt slighted by an organization. Over time, the conflict in my mind became even bigger, leading me to send an email to the CEO expressing my concerns. This leader never responded, leading me to even greater anger and frustration. Finally, I scheduled a time for coffee to confront the CEO directly. The meeting was an embarrassment as ...
Years ago, a pastor and his elders were locked in conflict. Early on, the pastor shared a vision with the elders that they needed to become more evangelistic and community minded. The leaders, knowing their church was dying, embraced his vision and hired this pastor to move them forward. Sometime later, however, these longstanding leaders began grumbling about the changes ...
This week we’re discussing causes of conflict in today’s workplace. One of those causes is obstinance. There are some people who love to cause trouble. If you say yes, they say no. As a junior loan officer, my job required me to present loan proposals to the bank’s loan committee. One of the members of the committee prided himself on ...
This week we’re discussing some of the causes of conflict in today’s workplace. One of those causes is hatred. Years ago, at a Graduate School of Banking event, a comedian asked everyone to stand. He then asked us to look to the person to our right. He then asked everyone to look to the person to their left. Then he ...
This week we’re discussing some of the causes of conflict in today’s workplace. One of those causes is deceit. While working as a lender at a large bank part of my job was to recruit new bank customers. On one occasion, after years of hard work, I finally landed an account from a high-profile company. A superior of mine, however, ...
This week we’re discussing some of the causes of conflict in today’s workplace. One of those causes is greed. Years ago, I helped a contractor establish a bonus plan for their branch locations. The bonus plan worked fine and everyone played by the rules except for one manager. He became greedy and manipulated the numbers to increase his part of ...
Since the level of conflict in our culture seems to be rising, this week I want to share some of the primary causes of conflict in the workplace. Anger is the first one. Some people are situationally angry, others are more persistently angry. Years ago, I worked with a persistently angry person. Many days this person could be pleasant, but ...
Two researchers from Harvard Business school reported in the Wall Street Journal about a study they completed on “happiness.” According to Grant Donnelly and Michael Norton, their study focused specifically on wealth and happiness in millionaires. They surveyed over 4,000 millionaires to determine if increased wealth brings happiness and if their happiness was impacted by whether the wealth was earned ...
Hiring new employees can be scary. The risks may include inadvertently selecting someone with character flaws, incompetence, or hiring someone who doesn’t fit your cause or culture. Developing and using a process for hiring can help you discern if God really sent someone to you or if there’s someone even better in waiting. Samuel interviewed and rejected seven candidates before ...
Equipping Others to Do Work Differently
