The Lady Hooligan’s Page

I attended a course this week, on Monday and Tuesday.  The course was on Conflict Resolution and Negotiation Skills!  That’s obviously not a bad course to have under one’s belt, but I am rather tempted to add at this point that anger management counselling would have been more appropriate for yours charmingly.

Despite my initial misgivings about the course and its appropriateness to my circumstances, I was pleasantly surprised at the way I could implement that information, not only at work, but in life in general.

My personal problem in most conflict situations is that I tend to think with my emotions.  The problem with thinking with one’s emotions is that one switches off one’s mind in the process and reverts back to “animal instinct”.  And being animal is not a good thing at work, even when one does work for the local government!  So the key is to step back for a moment or two, and actually start thinking with one’s BRAIN!  Sure, that’s probably common sense to most people, but extremely difficult to apply once the heat is on!

My other big stumbling block lies in the way I handle criticism.  Sure, no-one I know likes being criticised, and not everyone gives it the right way, either!  However, I have realised that I should stop for a second, think about the words, and realise that not every bit of criticism flung my way is meant as a personal attack!  If I stop to think for a second, I’ll even realise that there are times when I AM at fault, and that it’s much easier to work on ME than it is to try and change other people.

So that’ll be my mission for the rest of June - to see where I can improve on ME!  Yes, I know one doesn’t mess with perfection, but then maybe a bit of work won’t hurt too much!

Today, I sorted out my cubicle at work, with the help of a big rubbish bag and a shredder.  Even my boss noticed!!! So maybe that’s a good start!