Out of the four below personality types, which best describes you at work?:

1. Analytical: Thinker, perfectionist, good attention to detail
2. Amiable: Team player, diplomatic, loyal
3. Driver: Strong, independent, high achiever
4. Expressive: Good communicator, passionate, creative

For each positive trait these personality types have, there are also some negative points, which are the things we need to focus on when trying to resolve conflict in the workplace.
Workplace conflict is something that will affect everyone at some point in their working career. It might be directly, where we find ourselves clashing with a colleague, boss or employee or indirectly when we get caught in the conflict cross-fire of other work colleagues.
When we’re working at least seven hours a day, conflict at work can really put a downer on our outlook when we feel like we’re ‘going into battle’ everyday, which is why we’ve dedicated this post to advice on avoiding workplace conflict.

With some help from our expert panel, we’ve identified some common themes and key strategies for addressing conflict.

1. Conflict is good
Shane Warren from Waterworth (a human resource leadership and organisational development consulting firm) looks at conflict from a different angle and says, “I always encourage people to accept that conflict is in fact good, because this shows people can be bothered to have an emotional investment in the work experience (apathy is the true killer to team dynamics)”.

Clair Couttie from fibreHR agrees that being open and honest is best: “Welcome conflict. Deal with it quickly and openly, don’t push it underground by not addressing it. Facilitate difference of opinion in a structured and safe way.”

When involved in difficult conversations, always remember “It’s not ‘what you say’, but how you say it (as my mum says!),” says Felicity Murray from Strategic Administration Services Australia (SASA).

2. Pick your battles
My grandad once wisely said, “You can’t win ‘em all!” which rings true in the workplace. “Individuals must be smart and you need to choose your battles well – don’t waste time and energy fighting a fight you can never win. Be sure to access your power of influence and run with it – what you cannot influence you are better learning to accept!” says Shane.

To avoid taking criticism at work personally, Felicity offers these gems of advice:
1. Think like a business owner and rise above the emotion of it
2. Focus on the outcome, not the reaction
3. Remember to ‘lead by example’

3. Define expectations – within the company and your team
“Grey areas” can lead to a grey culture. Most people like to know where they stand and uncertainty can lead to frustration, negativity and a lack of productivity.
When managing expectations, Felicity says it is important to take a step back and “Firstly, be clear about what they are”.

Lack of role clarity and goal setting “is often the biggest reason for conflict at work,” says Clair. Problems can arise when “Roles have not been clearly defined by management with some roles overlapping in accountability and responsibility. Where there are no clear goals set it is often difficult to make effective decisions in the best interests of the business.”

The solution? This is where management comes in. Someone needs to take charge and ensure that every team member is on the same page. This is where a clear and concise induction procedure comes in handy. Good habits are cemented when there is clarity around roles and goals for new team members. Clair believes that it’s important to “Define appropriate corporate values and behaviours. In this way when inappropriate conflict behaviours arise performance management can be undertaken quickly and in a structured way that is clear to all parties”.

4. Learn how to negotiate
“Learn how to say ‘no’” is a common bit of advice thrown to people who are overwhelmed by their workload. But sometimes saying ‘no’ isn’t that simple. If ‘no’ isn’t a word you’re comfortable with, put on your negotiating hat and learn how to offer alternative solutions.
Felicity suggests, “Don’t say no but rather offer solutions”. Asking simple questions such as “When do you need it by?” helps to establish the urgency of the task. Offer solutions such as, “I will be able to do it for you by end of next week (rather than ‘no’ because you’re too busy)” or “Perhaps Sally can help, would you like me to ask her?” are helpful options says Felicity. “Communicate if there are issues with your workload such as “I will be able to do this, however, that will need to be pushed back until next month.”

5. Have the right people in the right roles
If you think back to the jobs you have enjoyed previously, chances are they involved tasks that you enjoy and/or are good at. Melinda Walker from Elite Success Coaching believes this is paramount. “If people are doing what they enjoy doing and they drive satisfaction from it, then they will and do spend less time complaining about their workload and their workmates.”

Clair believes that part of the key to success is to “Embrace and understand diversity. Everyone has different backgrounds perspectives and values which can enrich a team. The key is to understand these in teams and appreciate everyone’s strengths and acknowledge development areas.”

What are some strategies that you can use to ensure that you have the right people in the right roles?

1. Identify the different personality types within your workplace. Clair suggests using organisational psych tools such as DiSC and MBTI to help “start the conversation and create shared understanding”. These are great tools that can be extremely beneficial in a variety of workplaces, but they must be used with care. Instruments such as MBTI and DiSC “need to be used responsibly to assist in understanding of differences rather than to divide or excuse inappropriate behavior,” advises Clair.

2. Start to match employee’s strengths with specific tasks, as Melinda explains below:
a) The devil is in the detail – “People who are good with detail should be creating things like computer programs, working with numbers, spread-sheets, office manuals that kind of thing.  Essentially anything that involves a lot of detail.”

b) People who need people – “People who are good with people and not so good with detail should always either be in sales or at front of house, greeting people to your business and making them feel welcome.”

c) Lone Wolf – “People who are good at working on their own and not taking direction should be in charge of a sales team, be in leadership or be involved in organizing training for the staff and ideally running it as well.”

d) Comfort Seekers – “People who are good at being comfortable and like stability and don’t have any real desire to move up the corporate ladder are the best people for maintaining your database and your clients.  They should be the ones doing the follow up and making sure your clients are happy.”

Melinda believes it’s important to recognise that “People are an emotional lot yet essentially we are all very similar and if you know what motivates someone and what makes them happy by understanding their personality types better then you will have a far more cohesive and productive workplace.”

A huge thank you to our contributors for their wise words:

Shane Warren, Waterworth – Waterworth is a human resource leadership and organisational development consulting firm working across the Asia Pacific www.waterworth.com.au

Clair Couttie, fibreHR – fibreHR is a generalist HR consultancy operating in the SME space with up to 70 different clients across a range of industries. www.fibrehr.com.au

Melinda Walker, Elite Success Coaching – Melinda works with businesses to develop their people by creating high performing teams who are committed to the culture of an organization. Together we increase cohesion and productivity for individuals and within teams. www.melindawalker.com.au

Felicity Murray, Strategic Administration Services Australia (SASA) – SASA is Australia’s leading Strategic Administration Services provider.
For over 21 years, founder and principal specialist Felicity Murray, has
supported business leaders and owners, developed administration processes
and programs, and recruited, managed, trained, coached and mentored
Administration staff across Australia.www.strategicadministrationservices.com.au
www.facebook.com/strategicadministrationservicesaustralia
http://www.linkedin.com/company/strategic-administration-services-Australia

Life’s officially back to normal after the summer holidays. How do I know this? I can finally park the car in my local shopping centre without having to do laps looking for a free space! It seems that the hordes of school children and uni students who called the mall home most days throughout the summer holidays finally have somewhere else they have to be.

The sad thing is that most of us are also back behind our desks and the summer holidays are but a distant memory. But before you book your next mini-break, try to look for some positives in your role. Maybe there’s a training course you can enrol in to extend your skills, or perhaps there’s a better way of doing a task you do every day, like checking and responding to your emails. 

This week we’ve dedicated our blog to all things work: great products that will get you excited about your next business trip, meeting or presentation, and tips on how to deal with stressful work situations, like emails coming from all directions. Watch this space for more helpful tips on how to survive and thrive at work this year in our Work Hard, Play Hard series.

Email is used for everything from communicating with colleagues and friends to marketing products and events. Generally speaking, the more you send, the more you receive. So how do you cope when you’re faced with an inbox of 100+ emails per day? There’s got to be some strategies that we can use to help us ‘work smarter, not harder’, so we put our hand up and asked for some advice. Check out some of the fantastic suggestions and solutions our contributors shared with us below:

Problem 1:
Email becomes an unproductive distraction (you may even use it as a form of procrastination)
Personally, I find email a terrible distraction. Every time I access my inbox to look for a piece of info someone has sent me, I catch myself going through new emails and feeling overwhelmed by additional tasks I need to complete.

Solutions:
• Limit how often you check your email
Unless your job is entirely driven by receiving emails i.e. answering customer queries that only come through on email, limit yourself to how often you check your emails. I allow myself half an hour every couple of hours to check emails and prioritise the ones that need an urgent response. Most people are happy if you respond on the same day you receive their email, and if it’s a life-or-death situation they’ll usually call instead.
• Turn off the New Email pop-ups and alerts
If you receive a message or alert every time you get an email, you’ll go insane. Curiosity will drive you to check your inbox, so turn off your email alerts and focus on what you’re doing.
• Close your inbox when you’re not checking your email
This will limit your desire to click on your inbox, ‘just in case’ anything new has come through. Complete the task you are doing, and then check your email.

Problem 2:
You can never find important emails when you need them

Solutions:
• Use folders to stay organised
Anton Martin from Sherpa Design is a big fan of creating folders for clients or projects. “It’s important to organise all of your current projects or clients into their own folders to keep your inbox clean and to have relevant client emails easily index-able,” Anton explains.
• Archive the folders you don’t use anymore
To avoid the infinite list of folders down the left-hand side of your inbox, have a Spring Clean every now and then and archive old folders you don’t use. Anton recommends archiving “Previous clients email folders so they remain organised and free up precious email storage”.

Problem 3:
You have 100+ new emails in your inbox and you don’t know where to start OR you never seems to get quick responses to your emails

Solutions:
• Sort emails by subject when you start going through them so you can work through email trails quickly
• Review the way you use email subject lines
The title of your email could be affecting the effectiveness of your emails, explains copywriting expert, Jess Woods of Woods of Words: “Email subject lines should be catchy, yet informative. You want to attract attention so that your email stands out amongst the crowd (and it will get read before others) yet remain focussed on the matter you are emailing about.”
• Don’t use start your email in the header line
“There is nothing more off-putting than an email header that reads: “Can you work on this and….” before concluding the sentence “…that by Friday please” in the body of the email. It looks unprofessional and is often sent straight to the trash pile,” says Jess.
·  Use reminders to follow up on important emails that you need a response to
Elizabeth Moore, Brand Manager of Wallsneedlove recommends using ‘“Boomerang’ which sends a reminder after a specified amount of time if they haven’t responded, making it much easier to send follow up e-mails”.
·   Always proof read your emails before sending
Does your email make sense and will your recipient understand what you mean? “Read over what you have written before sending and you are much more likely to get the response you want,” advises Elizabeth.  

Problem 4:
You can’t get on top of the amount of emails you receive

Solutions:
• Find a strategy of categorising your emails so you can work through them.
Landon Kahn, Marketing Manager for Todae Solar has a great system called the Zero Inbox principle that he uses to manage his inbox. “You can ensure you spend less time on email and more time on more important tasks by categorising your emails and actioning them straight away,” explains Landon. You’ve got five options on what to do with emails that hit your inbox:
1. Delete – if it’s unimportant delete it (or archive)
2. Delegate – if it is a task that someone else is able to do forward it to them straight away.
3. Respond – Some emails my require a response (and then archive)
4. Do – Action it immediately if need be
5. Defer – If you don’t have enough time, defer it with a reminder for later (but remove it from your inbox).
• Identify serial email offenders
Work out who sends you the most emails and try and find an alternative way to communicate. If it’s a work colleague or client, schedule a regular (brief but focused) meeting where you can discuss points that would usually be emailed. Ensure your team members and colleagues know when they should and shouldn’t cc you on emails. Remove yourself from unnecessary mailing lists.

Problem 5:
We sometimes forget there’s a person at the other end of an email
Solutions:

• Focus on your intro

“It’s important to remember when e-mailing that you are still talking to someone. We get so many e-mails these days it can be hard to keep up, both with whom we have e-mailed and who has e-mailed us,” says Elizabeth Moore of Wallsneedlove. Elizabeth recommends starting your email off “with a genuine and attention grabbing intro. My go-to-intro is ‘Hello [name], I hope this e-mail finds you well.’ Be genuine and show attention to detail”.

Thanks to our contributors for their advice:

Anton Martin, Sherpa Design: Sherpa Design is a boutique web design and online marketing shop that specialises in crafting your vision into an awesome website, and then taking that website and turning it into a profitable business tool. Check out their work: www.webdesigners.net.au

Jess Woods, Woods of Words: Jess is the owner of Woods Of Words, offering freelance copywriting and PR services in Sydney. Check out examples of Jess’s work and the service she offers at www.woodsofwords.com

Landon Kahn, Todae Solar: Landon is the Marketing Manager for Todae Solar. Check out Todae Solar’s services and projects at www.todaesolar.com.au

Elizabeth Moore, Wallsneedlove: Elizabeth is the Brand Manager of Wallsneedlove.com where she runs the social media platforms and manages SEO. She has worked in social media and marketing professionally since graduating college in 2010. Check out what www.wallsneedlove.com can do for you.