Most employees spend too much time in conflict situations, while managers spend too much time putting out fires that could have been prevented with better planning and more deliberate actions. These events collide to create a constant strain for managers. This course gives you the tools to better manage yourself, so you are less drained and more present and thoughtful in your responses. It clarifies processes for handling conflicts head on before they become too hot to handle and provides practice in communication skills for turning difficult situations in to win-wins most of the time.

Performance Objectives: Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:

• Assess your emotional intelligence, understand why it matters, and learn how to improve it.
• Practice deeper stress reduction to better manage your triggers.
• Discover how conflicts are shaped by expectations, perceptions, and lifelong coping patterns.
• Recognize the link between feelings and behaviors.
• Identify your most often used conflict response strategies and communication styles.
• Implement an interest-based approach to help both sides get their needs met.
• Have the right conversations, with the right people, in the right ways.
• Communicate in ways that leave others feeling uplifted.
• Recognize ways to allow everyone in conflict to 'save face'.
• Use components of various conflict resolution processes when mediating impasses.
• Use tools to have difficult conversations in productive ways.
• Face your next conflict head on.

Intended audience: Mid-level managers, team leads, and supervisors who want to improve their ability to influence positive organizational outcomes.