The stories shared around the table when speaking to a management group are eerily similar. Employees who are very good at the technical part of their job but who seem unable to get along in a team environment. How do we deal with the folks that just don’t get it?

Too often, the answer is to do nothing, to tell ourselves, our old selves that there is nothing to be done unless a formal complaint is initiated. Managers seem to feel that allowing employees to “vent” to them is enough, that they just needed to talk to someone and didn’t actually want anything done. All comforting thoughts for those of us that do not like dealing with conflict but dead wrong.

I call it dead wrong because I believe it is a fatal mistake – fatal for a productive team bond, fatal for the employees enduring the behaviours, fatal for the manager who gets a reputation for ducking problems and all too often, fatal for the organization due to lost efficiencies, trouble retaining talent, and formal complaints that travel to outside jurisdictions.

Leading groups of our peers is the main challenge when one is promoted to Management. Why are some of us willing to take on the challenge and others are convinced that they can’t do it? Why do some find it so difficult to identify the unique challenges of the particular group we are leading, and apply the appropriate set of motivations.

What is a Manager nowadays? Who are our successful Leaders, and how can we be more like them and less like our old selves?

Leading is dealing effectively with people. All kinds of people; petty people, great people, people in arguments, people who do not like each other, and people who like each other a little too much. Simple yet complex.

Many of our workplaces resemble the Hollywood movie set, Ticking Time Bomb rigged to explode. Who is the Expert in diffusing these inter-office bombs? A Leader? A Manager? A Peer? Is it the person assigned the leadership task and paid to do the jobs others don’t want?

Or does nothing happen, as the clock ticks to zero and inter-office chaos ensues? Fast forward to the cleanup effort, how much time and energy is spent trying the put the office back to the state it was in the second before that bomb went off?

I have seen far too many an office bomb explode, and I am tired of it. We can do better. You can do better and I can do better, which is why I created The Ticking Time Bomb; defusing workplace conflict. The Ticking Time Bomb course will help you identify bombs lying in wait, understand your part in defusing them, and provide you some technical skills in the resolution effort. This course is only for those interested in creating and maintaining a respectful, fun, stress free working environment, where team members understand that a Team is not a bunch of “me”, but a group of individuals that band together to form something greater than the sum of it’s parts. I think the effort is worth it, do you?

I look forward to seeing you in the workshop as part of my Team!