Will A Workplace Bully Bankrupt Your Company?

Twenty-five percent of employees suffer with peer to peer bullying and its on the rise, according to the National Institute of Safety and Health. Dina Beach Lynch, a 12 year workplace strategist and mediator, has the answer: Conflict Coaching. A short-term, results-oriented tool, conflict coaching enables employers to quickly, skilfully manage bullying before it escalates into complaints and harassment charges.

Workplace bullies act out because they lack the interpersonal and communication skills to connect genuinely to another person or be persuasive. Through Conflict Coaching, companies can respond to and effective manage the bully's behavior while taking steps to safeguard against future lawsuits.

Bullies learn proven techniques to be more persuasive and collaborative in the workplace. Individuals can identify what action is their best interests; deal with the highly charged emotions-theirs and others; and create strategies to get great results through coaching. The outcome- the bully becomes less contentious, more focused and productive.

Peer to peer bullying can occur when the bully is fearful of loss and believes (whether real or perceived) that the person bullied is the cause of that loss. Instead of dealing directly with his fears, the bully resorts to using power plays- intimidation, isolation, gossip- to control the person they see at fault and defend against that perceived loss.

For example, a bully working on a cross-functional team may control others with threats of reporting up to ensure that she doesn’t lose face with her boss for not completing a project on time.

Or, a team member who thought he should have been team leader may aggressively challenge every decision and idea by the leader as a way of regaining self-esteem and demonstrating how much more effective his leadership would have been. In both these instances, the bullies either weren’t aware of or lacked the communication skills to build collaborative relationships with their colleagues. That lack of knowledge and skill leads to bullying and worse in a business setting.

Conflict management- being able to bridge across difference to create a workable solution- is a skill sorely lacking in today’s workforce at a time when increasing workloads and decreasing resources make it critical. Smart companies educate their people to become better problem-solvers to safeguard against harassment and discrimination claims.

Beach Lynch has a background in law, and has served as a both corporate mediator and Ombudsman over the past 12 years. She is one of few African-Americans doing conflict work in corporate settings. She started her career working with corporate human resource departments to integrate conflict communication skills into their work, and now teachs managers at large organizations like Coca Cola and non-profits like the Boston Architect Society to be use the skills to become more effective problem-solvers and leaders. Her website is http://www.workwelltogether.com.

A member of the Ombudsman Association, the American Bar Association- Dispute Resolution Section, and the Northeast Human Resources Association, Beach Lynch will conduct a seminar at the Boston Residential Build Conference April 7, 2005.

Currently, she is developing an Ombudsman service for mid-sized service professionals like architects, CPAs, consultants that want to skilfully manage internal tensions and client issues. Beach Lynch lives in Boston with her husband and children.

Dina Beach Lynch is a Mediator and Workplace Strategist who owns WorkWellTogether.com which provides usable tools to manage bad clients and problem employees. She also the author of Mediation Mensch, a guide to launching a successful mediation practice.